A Teacher’s Summer on the Road; Episode 2

Editors note 08/05/2020: A little something from the Marchives.  I wrote this some six years ago, and today I ran across it again. Interesting to note how times have changed, and how two worlds (business, teaching) I once thought so dissimilar are now decidedly...not.  Random (like the weather) thoughts. Tattoos are all the rage.  Personally, …

He had it in the bag

A true tale of romance, in time for Valentine's Day... I spent the bulk of my thirties working at the Holiday Inn Metrodome in Minneapolis. The 260-room hotel was a very nice, well-run property right off the edge of downtown, and along with the usual array of business travelers and sports fans, it's setting in …

First letter to a new grandson

Eight years later?  The self-rejoinder - coming soon to this space.  11/17/11 Dear Felix: First off, let me welcome you to this wild, wonderful world. Yeah, it has issues – always has and always will. Maybe as time goes by, you’ll be one of the ones fixing the problems. Still, it’s a great place to hang …

Everything is on the table

Our kitchen table is an heirloom in training. Sitting alone at this table with open notebook, a pen, and a fresh cup of coffee in the early morning light of day I can, with an angular glance, see the extensive preparation and practice for remembrance that it has already put in. At a mere sixteen-years, …

Making my best pitch

I have a dead file, and it is in need of its annual updating. The file dangles in the front of our family filing cabinet, a red hanging folder filled with all of the important stuff my family will need for when I depart this mortal coil: the songs I want played, the songs I wish …

Antipasto!

Dinner with my Valentine; wine and Sinatra Fine haiku-be-do-be-do – Mark L. Lucker © 2018 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd

He had it in the bag

A true tale of romance, in time for Valentine's Day... I spent the bulk of my thirties working at the Holiday Inn Metrodome in Minneapolis. The 260-room hotel was a very nice, well-run property right off the edge of downtown, and along with the usual array of business travelers and sports fans, it's setting in …

‘Kids, don’t try this at home. Again.’ A Valentine vignette

We were young, we were broke….we were living in rural Iowa, for cryin' out loud. My roommate Jim had a girlfriend, and one Friday night he was going to impress her with a nice, home cooked meal and an evening of romance. This necessitated me finding somewhere else to be for the night, which was …

A passed torch

I’ve become the old guys I grew up around. My youth was filled with a fascinating blend of old timers that I joyfully gleaned much of what I needed to know about life by just hanging around with all of them. They were mostly retired, blue-collar guys; my grandfather worked on an assembly line making […]

First letter to a new grandson

It's hard to believe it has been four years since I first penned the missive below.  But it has been. My grandson Felix turns four on Tuesday. In looking back over my initial thoughts at this wondrous event...well, not much has changed. Except everything has.  All for the good. Time flies, and flying with Felix? …