Some folks keep their loved ones’ ashes on the mantel for generations, while others resort to taxidermy when a beloved pet departs this earthly plane. As for me, I believe in rapid burial for my organic friends, but I must confess I have had the left-behinds of my long-defunct sewing machine sitting on a shelf […]
Author: Evelyn J. Willburn
A day at the beach (c. 1976)
Author’s note: as noted above, I wrote this sometime in the mid to late seventies. It made my family laugh. Shout out to my amazing sister Laura, who has had it memorized for all these years. Without her, this little gem might have been lost forever in the mists of time. A Day at the […]
The kindness of strangers
In December of 2017 I went to Virginia for several weeks to help take care of my father. If I had known that he would die in mid-January, I (hope I) would have stayed for the duration, but I wound up leaving right before Christmas, and returning to Powhatan when I got the news. For […]
One perfect raven
I came out this morning to find a raven lying in the street under our power pole. I put on work gloves and picked it up. It had a heavy, healthy feel to it, and it bore not one trace of damage or corruption. Every glossy black feather was present and accounted for; the marvelously […]
A brief (personal) history of smoking
My father often spoke of his growing-up adventures with his younger cousin Jim, and one such adventure that comes to mind today is his experience hiding out behind a shed and smoking uncured rabbit tobacco out of a corn cob pipe. Although many people apparently smoke, chew, and make tea from rabbit tobacco, and swear […]
In praise of quiet tenacity
My dog Bandit was, in the vernacular of my people, “a caution.” I imagine that this term is related to the phrase “a cautionary tale,” which means, “listen while I tell you what this person did, and then go do something, anything, except that.” And truly, dear Bandit did many things that I would not […]
The Weird Sisters
Now, here’s a word for you: weird. I looked it up and found a trail back to around 1400 C.E. (C.E. stands for Common Era, a secular way to say A.D., which, by the way, means “Anno Domini,” or the “Year of our Lord” in Latin, and NOT “After Death”). Anyway, an online search gives […]
‘Tis the season to be confused
Do you remember back in the Sixties and part of the Seventies, when you and your two older sisters and your two older cousins would enter a month-long state of frothing mania beginning on or around each December first? No, wait, sorry, that was me. Anyway, when we were kids, Christmas was a time of […]
Pardon our dust. . .
Hello, all! I am trying some things with my website, so please forgive me if you find yourself in a blind alley. Stay warm.