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disjointed clips imitate life
Read MoreIt came to me as 400-foot reel of 16mm, silent, black-and-white film a decade ago. A friend had purchased it at an estate sale, but lacking a projector, passed it on to me. I love old film. It is like getting a gift from the…
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Coming Home
Read MoreAt 3:36 p.m. November 14, 2020, my 2013 blue Scion XD crossed the state line on Interstate 79 north of Morgantown, West Virginia. As the WVU billboard near the state welcome center declared, I was home. Finally. My parents left West Virginia in 1956 and…
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Mourning a tree in blossom
Read More(May 2020, Geneva, Ohio) Its five main limbs resembled the biceps of a circus weightlifter. They emerged from the low-set trunk just a few inches above the former orchard’s soil; twenty-inches in diameter at their widest, the limbs rose like a worshiper’s arms and terminated…
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Mail Pouch
Read MoreIt was the summer 1985. I was in my second year as a photographer and occasional writer for the Ashtabula Star Beacon while, when searching for feature art in the Rock Creek area, I came across a barn being painted. The barn was just north…
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American Penmanship’s father had a famous daughter, too
Read MoreEllen Spencer Mussey: The Father of Penmanship’s Trail-Blazing Daughter Ellen Spencer was but 12 years old when she went to work in the penmanship school of her famous father, Platt R. Spencer of Geneva. She was the youngest penmanship teacher in Ohio, and her father,…
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The Field Guide to all things Ashtabula
Read More“Ashtabula County: A field guide to the natural, historical and curious treasures of Ohio’s largest county” is back in stock. Additionally, Ruth and I will be at Jefferson, Ohio, Recreation Center on East Jefferson Street, Dec. 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for their…
