Little Pasture on the Prairie

I wrote this eleven years ago, when I was making my living touring and teaching music: “Today I was at the Minnesota State Fair playing a show on a big stage, to a big crowd.

Stray Thoughts Starlight, star bright

I’ll never forget what it was like looking up at the stars as a young kid.

LETTER

Kathy, I went to the Memorial Day Program this morning at the Timber Lake School Theater. It was truly a wonderful program with Jason and Kay Booth giving a virtual address, since they are deployed out of the country.

Welcome to our/your West River Summer

Here at the Topic, we mark the beginning of summer as the day we put our West River Summer issue in the mail and on the news stands. If you are reading this, you have your summer “tool kit” in your hands.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Spring in western Dakota usually involves quite a few fits and starts. The weather warms, we tumble from our houses in t-shirts praising the sun. The next day it’s back to winter coats and knit caps, and we grumble to our neighbors, “I’m ready for this cold to be over.

LETTERS

To who it might concern, In the May 12th issue of the Topic which I just got, I see the county commissioners are thinking about defunding the 4-H program.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Every spring a few strawberry plants re-emerge in the strawberry patch I’ve been attempting to cultivate the past five years. They are usually in sad shape, bedraggled and exhausted by the long winter, their brave roots having barely survived.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To whom it may concern: Hi, I’m Katie Ridl. I’m 11 years old and an active 4-H member. It was explained to me that the Dewey County Commissioners are deciding whether to keep 4-H or get rid of it. I don’t believe that 4-H should be shut down, it is a great program.

Brother from another mother

I got a text not so long ago from a good man from my old neighborhood trashing it as a “ghetto” now and how it was in his mind way back when. I had to stop him in his tracks. I loved that old reservation neighborhood. We both had adults who loved us, fed us, clothed us, and watched our backs.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

When I was 18, I left my home in Minnesota to go to college on the East Coast. I was woefully under prepared for the adventure I was undertaking and I knew it. Even with the hubris of youth on my side, I was daunted by the enormity of leaving everyone and everything I knew behind.