From the Vault: Fishing

By Eilene Lyon The “From the Vault” series features an artifact or family photo from my collection to illustrate a tale from my distant past. Bluegill The photo I posted recently of Ward Cutting with his trout catch made me think of other fishing tales. My father isn’t much the outdoorsy kind of guy. My... Continue Reading →

March 10, 2022 45

From the Vault: Diary

By Eilene Lyon I would guess that most people who become writers have a journaling habit. My “daily” diaries are mostly compendiums of minutia, a way to remember what I did for all those countless yesterdays. One’s first diary is special. I don’t recall who gave this to me for Christmas in 1972. Maybe my... Continue Reading →

January 6, 2022 63

From the Vault: Swimming Lessons

By Eilene Lyon The “From the Vault” series features an artifact or family photo from my collection to illustrate a tale from my distant past. In retrospect, I’m grateful my parents insisted we learn to swim as young children. That doesn’t mean I enjoyed the process, though. I don’t recall where I first began taking... Continue Reading →

August 19, 2021 35

From the Vault: Pencil Cup

By Eilene Lyon The “From the Vault” series features an artifact or family photo from my collection to illustrate a tale from my distant past. In 1976 my school, the American School of Guatemala, participated in an international high school drama arts festival in Managua, Nicaragua. We took a bus trip through part of Central... Continue Reading →

April 1, 2021 47

Top This Coincidence!

By Eilene Lyon Little Brother, who lives in the Cleveland area, sent me this image many years ago. It seems that some friends of his decided to take a vacation trip to Vancouver and Seattle back in the early 1990s. Little Brother jokingly asked them to look up his relatives who live in the Northwest.... Continue Reading →

November 24, 2020 43

Absurdities #10

By Eilene Lyon This is actually two absurdities for the price of one! When we bought this year-old trailer in 2002, it came with a motor vehicle title. Um, trailers don’t have motors. After buying our van RV in August, we sold the trailer. We gave the buyers a proper bill of sale, and transferred... Continue Reading →

November 5, 2020 37

The Slide Years: Playing Parts

By Eilene Lyon The Slide Years is a series in which I select an image my dad took from 1957-1982 with Kodachrome slide film, then I write a stream-of-consciousness essay – a sort of mini-memoir. "We must all do theater, to find out who we are, and to discover who we could become." – Augusto... Continue Reading →

October 29, 2020 39

How Rude!

By Eilene Lyon I never expected a problem, really. We have wildlife all around our home: deer browsing the shrubs, robins stripping berries from the juniper, chipmunks burying seeds in the flower pots, raccoons in the rafters, mice roaming the dark interior of our walls. Frankly, the dogs never did much to stem the tide,... Continue Reading →

October 15, 2020 38

Absurdities #9

By Eilene Lyon The other day I dropped by the local college campus to review a book in their research library. As I headed back to my car, I encountered a mule deer buck in velvet, blithely using a rear hoof to scratch his ear, like a dog, as he idly chewed some leaves he'd... Continue Reading →

August 20, 2020 35