Letter from Home | A collection of essays originally written for Flagstaff Live!

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Way Stations Remembered; One traveler’s tollbooth fandom

Way Stations Remembered; One traveler’s tollbooth fandom

Posted by on Sep 12, 2024

Every summer I make a pilgrimage to New England where I did some of my growing up. In a rented car I drive the familiar roads of Massachusetts and Maine, reacquainting myself with humidity and the color green. The farther north I go the fewer people there are, and along the coast the air cools and becomes salty. I don’t pull off the highway to find a bowl...

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Breakfast with the Captain

Breakfast with the Captain

Posted by on Aug 1, 2024

When I was a chubby five-year-old in puffed sleeves and shiny red shoes, and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had one answer: I want to be famous. I had learned not to say I wanted to be a fireman. Everyone laughed at that. But I couldn’t say what people expected, a teacher or a nurse. I didn’t want to be a teacher or a nurse. My first...

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A Portable Notion; Meditations on home

A Portable Notion; Meditations on home

Posted by on Jun 20, 2024

Here, two big winter storms brought a few trees down. The grass is lush and the ferns my mother planted have grown in and spread along the new drainage ditch. The place looks cared for, as my parents used to care for it. The driveway has a fresh load of gravel and the house a new coat of paint. I got here last night and even in the dark I could sense the...

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A Wild Affection; In praise of the pickups

A Wild Affection; In praise of the pickups

Posted by on May 9, 2024

If you’ve never listened to the Hot Country Knights singing “Pick Her Up,” you may not be interested in reading any further because this Letter From Home is basically a paean to pickup trucks, including the lyrics they inspire. An example of this brilliance is: “If you wanna do right on a Saturday night/This is all you’ve gotta do/…Pick her up in a pickup...

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Adrift in the Floating City; A traveler considers home

Adrift in the Floating City; A traveler considers home

Posted by on Apr 4, 2024

Ever since reading Alfred Kazin’s A Walker in the City, I’ve approached the art of the passeggiata with a new sense of awe. Far from being a simple feat of forward movement, a stroll is an act of discovery, a gourmet meal of the senses. We prowl and sniff and stop and listen and sniff again, just like the four-footers we know. Sometimes we’re purposeful,...

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