Just after dawn I drove north into Eau Claire. It was the morning of my 17th anniversary, and I wanted to surprise my wife with locally grown …
From the front porch, from the hammock, from the garden, I hear it most evenings. Not the steady soundtrack of frogs, insects, birdsong, wind …
On a recent Saturday afternoon, I stood in Jordan Hagedorn’s store, For the Hobby Sports Cards, at the site of the old Buroker’s Taxidermy, Ba…
I recently went on my fifth (almost annual) Cousins Tavern Tour. Bobby Schroedel’s mother and mine were sisters. Though Bernice and Virgie rai…
One Tuesday morning in June my husband realized his achiness and stuffy nose were likely more than seasonal allergies. I dug out our governmen…
Have you ever wondered how many people collect matchbooks?
There is a moment on this wide continent of North America when all the combines are named Hiawatha. And all those combines are of the Ojibwa n…
I first met Frank Betz one January afternoon while roaming the Antique Emporium. He was a wry-smiled, carefully coiffed, tow-headed 20-year-ol…
The Black Rock Desert in Nevada hosts Burning Man every summer on what used to be an ancient lakebed. Anyone who’s been there will tell you it…
His name was Lyndon, pastor to the Liberty Corners Methodist kirk at the corner of County Trunk J and Old Amish Road. I was newly out of the s…
Upon unloading our gear at the Coon Fork County Park campsite, my wife Meredith is reminded that I am still not the seasoned camper I pretend to be.
In the summer of 1972, Rhinelander Mayor Claribel Prosser received a letter from Clayton Bailey, curator of Wonders of the World Museum in Cal…
Controversy surrounding a recently proposed housing development on Lake Hallie prompted me to dig back into a time before there were any homes here.
A few weeks back, my father-in-law turned to his sister and said, “I’ve only got one goal left. I want to live long enough to see my tomatoes …
It is well after midnight and I’m standing in the dewy grass of our backyard. A puppy has been leading me by a blue leash in erratic circles f…
A vegetarian walks into a bar for the meat raffle and air conditioning. I know it sounds like the start of bad joke, but I recently visited He…
Of all the phrases in the English language, none are more beautiful than “summer camp.”
It had been 20 years since I had backpacked like this. Not a daypack filled with some granola bars, bottled water, a camera and a rain jacket.…
Here on Lake Hallie we have homemade docks held up by barrels or docks wheeled into the water each May and wheeled out in November. We’ve got …
In 1928, on a June morning much like today, 12-year-old Doris Mitchell was roused from sleep in her Randall Park home by shafts of sunlight wa…
We watched the Doppler radar all Sunday morning and early into the afternoon. No rain had fallen, and yet we remained cooped up. Finally, a de…
Since 1971, Memorial Day has been celebrated as a national holiday on the last Monday in May. This long weekend also marks the beginning of su…
Were it not for Bob Dylan, Xin Obaid of Wuhan, China, might never have come to America. As a young woman, Dylan’s music moved her deeply — one…
The turkey call is a handsome object. A circular chip of Pennsylvania slate framed in a stained black walnut “pot.” A hunter holds the call in…
I learned Woody Guthrie’s classic, “This Land is Your Land,” in second grade to perform with other Chippewa Falls children at a bicentennial c…
There’s a difference, Tiit Raid tells me, between “looking” and “seeing.”
On March 26, 2021, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram published an obituary for a man named Douglas Smith. The obituary wasn’t especially long and…
Shortly before dawn, the Easter Bunny is roused to work by the buzz of his alarm. He groans, searching for a snooze button.