She said: "He escaped early, the oldest of eight sons on the farm during what was later known as The Great Depression. Joined the Army; lied about his age and ended up in somewhere in Nevada along with a bunch of other recruits who were waiting for the Big Bang. They had spent the morning digging trenches in the darkness out in the dessert, and waiting. All that they knew was that they would wait until told to put their darkened goggles on and then stand up. Shortly afterward they would see a bright flash from something 15 miles away and they would wait for the wind that would follow; the wind that would kick up the sand and blow it into their faces, ending up being buried deep in their clothing. They would stand, after seeing the flash of a blast and open their arms to embrace the nuclear wind that would enfold them with unseen radiation, entering them in ways more intimate than anything living could ever have. They were the beginning of what would shortly be the end."

Stumble It!

The Calling

Stumble It!

She said: "You know, they keep saying that the reason that things are so bad now that those New York guys threw all the money away on bad loans is that no body is shopping anymore. We're all too scared or something to go shop for America. What nonsense! What's so bad about not buying junk from China or wherever? I think most folks have more than they can possibly use anyway. Is it the end of the world that no one wants to go out and buy a lot of plastic junk to save the economy? How 'bout we start fixing the roads and the schools and finding some of those foreclosed mansions to house the homeless in? How 'bout we start cleaning up the mess we made and make the air good to breathe and the water safe to drink. Instead of buying more junk that will end up in landfill next month, how 'bout we start cleaning house?"

Stumble It!

He said: "Oh, yes, we marched. We marched all over the country, or at least it sometimes felt like that. We marched in Jim Crow South; we marched in the icy North. We marched against segregation and against the war, any number of them, and we marched for each other. Didn't seem like it made much of a difference sometime. Seemed like nothing was every gonna change one way or the other. We marched for the young people who might follow us and we marched for ourselves and for each other because sometimes that was all we had. Some got to go home on their own two legs and some had to be shipped home in a plain pine box. Those were hard times, let me tell you; real hard times. I still can't bare the sight of them German dogs. But, anyway, we're OK now. Now it seemed like it all worked out somehow the way we wanted it to. Now it seemed like our prayers maybe got answered a little bit. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, though. Be a fool not to. But I'm hoping we don't have to march no more."

Stumble It!

She said: "

A bird flew into the front room window this morning. I heard a “whack” that sounded like the newspaper boy flinging the paper a little too enthusiastically onto the front porch, but the paper had already been delivered earlier. I looked out of the window and didn’t see anything, so I opened the door and went out onto the porch. A very stunned bird was resting on the floor, panting, but still alive. I was concerned about the cat, but she was inside. The bird was not moving and didn’t seem aware that I was within inches of her. She closed her eyes, and after a moment, opened them again. I was afraid to do anything that would hurt her, so I left her there on the porch, hoping that she would recover from the shock of flying into my window pane and continue on to the place she was on the way to, wherever that was. It didn’t seem right that her flight would end on my porch. I thought about her all day and now can’t wait to get home to see if she is still there, away from the place that she wanted to be."

Stumble It!

He said: "It was really the war that changed him and made him different than before. I think it was the war that made him crazy more than anything else. Before he went over, he was a different guy. He was fun to be around then. He made us all laugh at his goofy jokes and he's do crazy things, like when he climbed all the way to the top of the town water tower and pretended to be Godzilla. You had to be there. But after they shipped him back, he wasn't the same anymore. I saw him cry a couple of times. He was always sad. Or mad. If he wasn't down, he was ranting all the time. He drank a lot, and I mean a LOT. He started hitting on the drugs. He smashed up his car. He lost Jill because he treated her so bad. He couldn't be around other people because he said we 'didn't understand', but he couldn't be alone either. It was sad to see him change like that and I blame the people who sent him over there. And for what? What good did it do to anyone? And it's sadder to know that we'll never get a chance now to see him like he used to be. All that we have now is a marker. That's all."

Stumble It!