One thing you can count on: Life is hard. And it just gets harder. So you want to find ways to climb around and find some joy—do something fun, just for you.
Playing music. That’s how the people in a book I’m working on faced life. Although their lives are different, this is what is common among them. They all use music to get through.
Read MoreClayton, a nine-year-old who lives near Newton, Kansas, has his own flock of sheep. He comes from a family of shepherds--he's fourth generation. He became further engaged with sheep when, at age five, he showed a lamb at a county fair for an older friend. He won a prize for his friend, but most of all, the lamb won Clayton's heart.
I have written a story about Clayton and his favorite lamb, which I've named Smokey. It will be published October 12 in a newly formed England-based online children's magazine called AlfieDog.
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Obstacles come in all forms. Gordon Parks would agree, although he may have had a hard time identifying which of his life obstacles gave him the most trouble. Being the 15th child in the family? Being poor? Being born in white Kansas in 1912? Being born dead?
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Brick reacted to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, as most Americans did. Shock, disbelief, and resolve to go on the offensive. Brick's good friends joined the Army right away. Brick's enthusiasm for serving his country was no less than his friends', but no matter which branch of service Brick tried, they said, "No." His untreatable physical condition, known as ankylosing spondylitis, had progressed too far, and he was turned down on all fronts.
To compensate for his disappointment--more like despair--Brick became chairman of the town's gas rationing committee. He grew a huge Victory Garden. But he still wanted t
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You've heard about Rosie the Riveter. Rosie now has her own organization. Thelma Baldock belongs to Rosie's group of women riveters that served in World War II, but Thelma didn't rivet. She welded. She doesn't know of an organization for welders like her, so she sticks with Rosie.
Thelma is 92 years old and remembers her days at St. John's Shipyard in Oregon, welding tanker ships for World War II soldiers, but she's not able to make use of her left leg, arm, or hand. She is a stroke victim. But her stories are intact.
Before graduating from high school in Delphos, Kansas, Thelma decided to get away from home. She wanted an adventure.
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