It had seemed unbearably hot in the truck as I drove Highway 299 from the coast to the center of northern California. It was made worse by the fact that the old Chevy had no air conditioning and every few miles there was a halt in traffic for road construction. What was normally a four…

It took me nearly three hours to get the old claw tub up on the front porch of the cabin by myself. I decided to take a break. I sat down, dangling my legs off the front edge of the porch, thinking back on the last year. It was rainy the day I found the…

Pritchard Johnson died at the age of ninety-three. He was born before the turn of the century and made a living working as a cowboy and farmer. He used to say, “I can still make out good horse-flesh even with my old worn out eyes.” Some folks thought it was just an old man bragging…

Mom had been busy in the kitchen all morning long. She was like that when it came to Thanksgiving dinner. Dad lounged in front of the new color television set with Deputy Walt Woodstock as Marcy, Deirdre and Adam ran around outside playing. I sat on the swing set, watched Dad and Walt through the…

The 12-man squad spread out along the eastern edge of their pick-up point. They remained low in the foliage, in order to stay out of sight of enemy patrols operating in the area. The squad knew they were more than a day early for their rendezvous with the C-130 Hercules that was scheduled to take…

The sun was setting in the Oklahoma sky as we drove towards Tulsa from the smaller town of Muskogee. It had been the first time Kyle had ever been to the town in which his Grandpa Tom had grown up and later died. Now he and I were returning to our hotel room after a full days…

A warm, rose-pink filed the western sky as the sun set itself deep into the Pacific Ocean.  The color reflected itself in the rippling of the river which Doc found himself greatly guiding the large gray mare alongside.  The sound of the horse’s hooves echoed with the natural sounds of the inland gulls and flow…

It was nearing the end of summer when one evening I saw what I thought was a cat jump over our backyard fence and dash towards the corner of our home. I quickly ran after it only to see it disappear in the crawl space under the house. So I rushed to our rumpus room where…

Two men, one from Las Vegas and the other from Reno, have pleaded not guilty in a slaying over a dispute involving a $9,000 debt.  Keon Park and Min Chang entered their pleas in the slaying of Young Park, who is not related to Keon. Park’s charred body was found December 23 on the Arizona side of the…

As I recall we had an undefeated football team at Margaret Keating School the year I graduated, so why Mr. Tom Brown was so angry at us, I don’t know.  All I can remember is we were singing rally songs on the bus home, when he stood up in the front of bus and started…