In The Cigar Box

Through seven different residences and about 40 years, I kept a wooden trunk.  Some might have called it a footlocker.   We built it as a Boy Scout project for my older brother to use at camp in Oceola, Missouri.  When Gerry aged out of scouting (long before it was known that scouting and I didn’t fit together – a different story), the trunk passed to me.   He had tired of it.  To me it was a treasure chest – a safe place for prized possessions.  Sky blue on the outside and lacquered on the inside, it had Gerry’s name stenciled on top and a hasp on the lid where I could put a spin dial padlock.  Secure.  Even Mom and Dad didn’t know the combination – at least I don’t think they did.  Early on, it held a few scraps of memorabilia.  But it was mostly empty.  I wanted it to hold something important, something that would be meaningful when I was old – like twenty or thirty or fifty?! My first real job was a pape...

If it ever ends…..  Was this the question she asked herself all evening?  Was she deciding what to do once the evening finally expired?  Was she sorry she’d agreed to this date? Adolescent fears are mostly exaggerated feelings that spin around too much self-absorption.  My fears and insecurities were no exception.  So, I did the usual thing and went way over the top trying to impress this new girl whose life intersected with mine in a most unlikely way.  We drove along Blue Ridge Boulevard and through Swope Park and I talked about the mysteries of Colonel Swope.  (The traffic in the park was light and a good ghost story might lead to a snuggle.)  Starlight Theater was an open air theater and I said it would be neat to see a show there (trying to express my grasp of the arts!)  I showed her through Waldo and my old house and then through Brookside on the way to the Plaza.  Along Brush Creek Boulevard I told her about Boss Tom Pe...

The winter of 1963 really began when Lee Harvey Oswald took the life of President Kennedy.   As if the weather felt compelled to mimic the mood of the times, winter turned long and dark and tested everyone with persistent icy winds.   Spring’s arrival felt unlikely.      But spring can come at any time and is always beautiful. As I remember it, the time was about 7:15am on a mid-June day.   High school graduation had been a couple of weeks before.   Paul Mason and I were back at work in our summer job – busting freight for Hicks-Ashby earning money for college.   Always trying to control costs, we carpooled from Raytown to 1610 Baltimore in Downtown KC.   After only a week or two, Paul told me that there was a girl – a friend of his girlfriend’s sister – who would like to join the carpool.   Winnie Wilson.   On that first morning, we were in her driveway at 7:15am, tapping the horn lightly like real gentlemen, but ...

Proving the power of an omen, or sometimes a curse, is work reserved to mystics and to those claiming ESP or using LSD.   None of that here.   The facts can speak for themselves. I told them, “Take the ashes and scatter them there.”   The place, well it’s the grassy knoll in front of where the portico of a remarkable landmark stood until January 9, 1892.   Academic Hall lasted a mere seventy-one days after the tradition, the rivalry, (perhaps the curse) began in Kansas City. In the fall of 1891, Kansas was the first of a four game season that included the Kansas City YMCA, Washburn, and Drury.   While Kansas was marching to victory (22-10) wearing leather helmets designed by James Naismith (who spent his off hours inventing basketball) the rivalry between Tigers and Jayhawks moved to the football field.   Jaded  memories of deeds perpetrated by the Jayhawkers, Quantrill’s Raiders and lots of ordinary citizens got funneled to th...