Written in Brooklyn in 1976 after reading a TIME magazine article about the execution of three Basque separatists in Hoyo de Manzanares.
Winding through the hills on the road to Madrid,
The jeeps and vans came to a stop;
The morning sun had just begun
To warm the mountain tops.
Written in about 1976, and based on my ancestor Uncle Hyland Biddle, wounded at the Battle of Shiloh
CHORUS:
Well, I feel like I’m slippin’ into hell to the sound of a rebel yell;
I only want to be a Union hero,
Most decorated man at the Battle of Shiloh;
But I had to get shot in the knee,
And, as the doctor said to me,
“If the pain don’t kill you, boy, it’ll be the gangrene.”
(more…)
Written around 1974, loosely based on a bus ride to Indianapolis sitting next to a Marine, heading to Columbus to see Karl play with his band at a Smuggler’s Inn
One evenin’ feelin’ kinda low,
I took the bus to Ohio;
To see my brother play in a band at a Holiday Inn;
And I asked to sit next to this man,
And he winked and said, “Sure you can,”
I took the window seat, and I settled down next to him.
Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #75, January/February 1998
It is a daunting project to move a household. It can feel even more complicated when many containers of precious La Leche League items are also involved. Moving my three sons, my husband, and myself from Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania was one thing. Moving La Leche League was another.
Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #75, January/February 1998
Many of us agonize over finding just the right topic or expanding an idea into an article for the Area Leaders’ Letter (ALL), a memo, Connections, or another La Leche League publication. Waiting and hoping for inspiration can be illusive and sporadic at best. However, he future article you’re looking for may be in something you’ve already written.
Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #71, May/June 1997
“She was like clear blue skies in the heaviest fog . . .”
—E. Annie Proulx, praising her editor in the acknowledgments from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Shipping News
Nova Scotia is famous for its fog. Like many coastal areas in Atlantic Canada, as warmer air spreads over the ocean and the frigid landscape, clouds of wet, gray mist settle along the shore. From my kitchen this time of year I can see Birches Park swathed in ghostlike veils, making the hill on Portland Street disappear and the regal copses of birch trees fade into last year’s summer memory.
Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #66, July/August 1996
An index is a useful tool for locating material that has been written about a particular subject. But have you considered using an index to generate an idea for a new article? The August 1995 Connections index compiled by Lynne Coates covers Issues #39–#59. As you look through the subjects and issue numbers, the following considerations might help spark a topic for your own article.
Written about 1979
Well, there’s a knock upon his door,
He begins to apologize;
He says, “I guess I should have warned you,”
And you know you’re getting’ wise, he’s got . . .
Based on a conversation I had with a one-armed man in line at the $2 window at the 1974 Kentucky Derby
I met you at the two-dollar window,
At the races on a day in July;
And I could tell you were a regular winner,
By the crazy look you had in your eye.
Written in Brooklyn, New York, in 1975
Movin’ and groovin’ at the deli,
Not exactly sure what I want;
Standin’ at the counter, starin’ through the glass,
Corned beef is nice, but it ain’t got no class.