The drive from our cabin overlooking Palisades Reservoir to Idaho Falls in the westernmost corner of Bonneville County takes about an hour. The highway never leaves the county, the place of my birth, a place (a dot really on the globe) of about a hundred thousand souls. Continue reading →

I spent the Independence Day holiday in Sun Valley this year. With its rodeos, parades, fireworks, Asian rug sales, live bands, egg tosses, and slippery slides, I challenge you to find a more all-American place to spend America’s birthday. Okay, I pretty much just described every town in Idaho—if I leave out the Persian rugs. Continue reading →

I recently attended the annual sixth grade track meet at Ravsten Stadium in Idaho Falls to watch my niece and nephew compete.

The meet is a rite of passage, the final transition from grade school. It has been a tradition in Idaho Falls for at least forty-five years. This I know because I competed in my citywide sixth-grade meet. Continue reading →

My mother is the daughter of a Danish immigrant. Consequently, she can’t speak a word of Danish, but does know every American English figure of speech—and then some. A century ago, when boatloads of Scandinavians came to Idaho to start anew, they immersed. They left their native languages, if not those difficult accents, in the old country. They insisted on English even if they did beat dead horses with Ben Franklin’s aphorisms and idioms. Continue reading →

Good father that I am, I accompanied my family to Easter church services. My calls to hurry echoed back through head cold-induced swollen sinuses as I hustled the girls to the car. I returned to the bathroom, where I stuffed cotton in my ears.

We arrived early enough to claim the back row. Families trickled in with scrubbed faces and pasted cowlicks. I surveyed the hubbub of familiar greetings from my muted throne. Continue reading →