Who’s afraid of poetry? Good question! Mom asked this half a century ago. The answers may well be the same today: Four Tell Who’s afraid of poetry?Not I, said the football player.I don’t understand it, butthe words are kind of pretty. Who’s afraid of poetry?Not I, said the busy housewife.I even write some. It’s not goodbut it makes me feel good. Who’s afraid of poetry?Not I, said the dilettante.I never was. But I don’t like this sharing;it’s getting to be…
Yesterday morning, what may well have been a murmuration of starlings came racing through our back woods like a blinding blizzard. I just happened to be perched in my comfy chair in the sunroom, with a wide-eyed panoramic view of the squall. It was wild! Farmer Gary later explained to me the birds are rather frantic this time of year, looking for food and a bit of warmth. They flew in from the northwest and crowded in the tree branches…
Sometimes when searching for family information in newspaper archives, there’s a story that simply must be shared. Today’s search was in the Bangor Weekly Courier. The year: 1854. I was looking for Olympe Josephine Poulin Lambert, my great-great-great grandmother (her daughter Olive was George Vayo‘s mother). The poor woman only lived to be 35 or 36. I was hoping to at least discover her date of death and burial place. Using the unusual first name of Olympe, the search began….
The mercury hit 57 today and may make it even higher tomorrow. That is what you call a January Thaw! Thing is, there’s nothing to thaw. No snow since last month, and even then, not much to brag about here in southern Indiana. No doubt that will change in the coming weeks and I’ll eat my words, crunching on icicles all the while. Growing up in western Massachusetts, we had a January thaw each year. The best part (next to…
You may remember the tragic story of Peter Schmitt: “The $2 Murder.” Peter’s mother, Maria Theresia Mehling Schmitt, was a relative from Gary’s father’s side of the family. (Even though Mehling was Gary’s mom’s maiden name.) I can just hear Gary’s Mehling cousins in chorus: “Prove it!” That is what all the online genealogy classes I take preach, too. Not to mention my journalism professors in college. And so, courtesy Ancestry.com: Now that we’ve got that established, let’s learn a…
As 2025 ends, the books of December are a mix of fable and fact. The first – a special treat – was read to me entirely by grandson Cam. He used a variety of excellent character voices, which never failed to delight me. He’s shares his thoughts in Book 1, below. Book 1: The BFG by Roald Dahl The BFG by Roald Dahl, in my opinion, is a great book to read. The story has Sophie, the main protagonist, and…
Judging from Mom’s poem below, I’m guessing she and Dad had just returned from a trip to The Hemingway Home in Key West, Florida, when she wrote this: Picasso’s Cat whichever life it wasdiscarded broken to the boxthe nine were not exhausted in Hemingway’s housethe cat Picasso madeemerges whole on the high chestout of Mexicohe tops it like a santothe house guides and the garden cats below pay homage ~ joan vayo ~ January 31, 1996 There are numerous stories…
This poem didn’t appear until its subject matter reached 41 years old. Mom, God bless her and keep her, may well have taken till then to get a good night’s sleep! Solstice 1955 Our son slept in the circle of my armsthat winter afternoon we drovethrough little towns in Massachusettssnow fell on the streetsand in the toy storewhere the china stars were sold ~ joan vayo ~ August 13, 1996 Sorry, Harry – I guess Mom and I just gave…
He was the only local boy to fight in Italy during World War One. Leo Paul Werne was a younger brother of Gary’s grandpa George. Born on January 25, 1891, he was 25 when the call came to sign up for the draft. Leo prepared to go “over there.” As part of the American Expeditionary Forces, Private Werne was a “Doughboy.” According to a front-page article in The Ferdinand News on May 23, 1919, Leo had quite an adventure: Returns…
On the sad anniversary of Sandy Hook and the day after the Brown University shooting, I’ll just leave this here: “AMERICAN GOTHIC – Nineteen-Sixties” ©1971 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved. Binoculars photo courtesy Alan Levine. Please subscribe here and we’ll send an email notice with each new story: