Two Gents' Worth
April 25, 2025
Thunderstorms here in the Heart of the American Heartland — Ames, Iowa — are not for the faint-of-heart. Though we’ve been here only a bit more than a week, we’ve already endured one of those “fasten your seat belts” weather-makers. This one blew in with quite a vengeance last Wednesday afternoon around 5. The sky…
Read More about Midwest Musings, 2018Traveling across country was incredibly difficult back in the early 1800’s. Just imagine — and it’s not easy to do — driving a covered wagon across rutted dirt trails that stretched thousands of miles from the Midwest to the West Coast. It took months, and many of those 19th-century travelers never made it. They had…
Read More about That Midwestern Feeling, AgainThis week back in Fresno — several months after we moved to the Central Coast in retirement — has been busy, indeed. Some of what made it hectic were great get-back-togethers with old friends Al and Bud. Al is one of the people I’ve known longest. We go way back to Hamilton Junior High days…
Read More about Old Gents, Still GabbingMy buddy Bud and I got together yesterday at a Starbucks in northeast Fresno. Bud is the “other guy” whose picture you see on this blog. He and I had not seen each other for a couple of months, since my wife and I pulled up stakes in Fresno and moved to our retirement home…
Read More about Two Old Guys, TalkingIt’s no small thing, leaving the place where you were born and lived for half a century — even if your “new” place is only a bit more than 100 miles from your “old” one. You leave many things behind — including friends and a sense of pride that you had played a part in…
Read More about Living in a New PlaceLet me tell you a story. The first time I moved away from Fresno was around Valentine’s Day in 1973. I piloted my hotshot blue ’71 Ford Pinto up Highway 99 to Sacramento – then motored east on I-80 and over the snow-capped Donner Summit into Reno. I headed north on the 395 and –…
Read More about Farewell, Fresno
Now that I’ve returned from my summer-long sojourn to the Midwest, my attention has turned to Fresno’s Next Big Thing: the re-opening of Fulton Street. I’ve spent quite some time over the past few days, walking up and down what used to be the Fulton Mall and what — within days — will officially be…
Read More about Ah, Yes. Fulton“We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond;…
Read More about Las Vegas
My almost summer-long stay in this great Heart of the American Heartland — Ames, Iowa — has nearly ended. In a few days, I’ll be trekking back to California to resume “the rest” of my life. But while I’m regretfully leaving behind this quintessential Midwestern university town, I’m going West with some indelible memories. The…
Read More about Memories of the Midwest
Autumn made its annual trek to our small part of the Great Midwest a few days ago. Not officially, of course — the calendar shows that summer still has a few play days left — but anyone who has lived in Ames for any period of time recognizes “the signs” that fall is here. For…
Read More about Autumn in the Midwest