Grandpa Harburn’s Immigrant Intake form

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Shoes, or What Not To Do When People Call You Names

As the bus doors opened, a tall man planted his feet wide in the threshold and stretched his long arms to the top corners of the jamb. He wore jean shorts and an old concert tee, and he had what looked like a cold sore on his lower lip. Our eyes locked as he leaned out toward me and my …

In the unlikely event you’ve been longing to hear me read my own words

You can read my original post here.

the yeah write superchallenge

Are you looking for kind and honest feedback on your writing? Do you like writing prompts and cash prizes? Then check this out: The yeah write super challenge is a six week, three-round competition that will help you stretch your muscles as a writer and storyteller. Each participant will walk away with detailed feedback on their entries, and the winners …

The Songs We Sing

Sometime in the middle of May, in the blinking daylight hours between rolling fog and thunderstorms, the buildings along Lincoln Avenue inhale. The restaurant workers in their white aprons have thrown open the large, floor-to-ceiling windows that line the fronts of their buildings. You have to fight against the draw of their breath as you walk by them, and the …

Evidence

Those glazed over eyes. You know what I mean: that moment at a party when you realize you can't remember how long you've been talking, and everyone that was listening is now either staring at hors d'oeuvres or smiling politely while internally wording their tweets about that boring guy who droned on for half an hour about the pros …

Telling Strangers Your Life Story, or Why Not to Go Whole Hog on Census Records

Genealogists are magicians. Don't believe me? Watch as I make my Aunt Barbara disappear before your eyes! In my ongoing search to learn about my grandfather, Ralph James's life, I came across a newspaper article that stated the date of his first marriage to Gladys Hooker. With the discovery of that date came an intriguing story problem: If Gladys …

Baby-daddy

Last week, I told a story about how a little circled X in the 1940 Iowa Census led me to a big discovery about my grandfather, Ralph James's life. I found out that in January of that year he'd resigned his position as Council Bluffs Assistant County Engineer during a meeting where the board was approving raises for him …

The Smallest of Clues

This snippet from the 1940 Federal Census looks pretty innocent, just another happy little family snuggled between neighbors on a page. Ralph, my paternal grandfather, worked for the government; Gladys, my step-grandmother, ran a beauty salon; the two little girls no doubt held hands as they skipped to school together. But see the circled X after Ralph's name? That's …

A Case of Bigamy

  MRS. LOUIS CLAYTON JAMES She Has a Grievance Which She Has Brought All the Way From Lincoln County, Nebraska And now She Airs It for the Readers of "The Nonpareil." There is a woman in Council Bluffs who has a story. Her name is Mrs. Louis Clayton James, and besides her story she has …