The Little Room Where I Grew Up

The last time I visited my parents in the house where I grew up, before my Mother died, I sat on a stool with my laptop on the bed. This is the room where I lived for seventeen years of my life, the first fifteen along with my older brother Jack. The room is small, sixteen by fifteen, or 240 square feet. These days my brother and I get along very well. Now I know why! If we didn’t, we would have killed each other long before either of us ever graduated from high school. And the room seemed much larger than it does now.

I don’t remember getting along with my brother. Just the opposite. Memories of torment filling every waking moment abound in my mind, torment that usually lasted every single day until one or both of us fell asleep at night. If that’s true, then how did we keep from killing each other?
As I sat there, staring at the walls now decorated with pink print wallpaper, I wonder – did my Mother secretly want girls instead of boys? Even the sheets and comforter on the bed are pink. Yeech!

Now there was a queen-sized bed in the room. Jack and I each had our own beds, small beds. I remember moving them around like forts, taking the plungers out of our BB guns and having cork wars, shooting at each other until my Mother would hear us and race into the room screaming, "Your Daddy’s going to whip your butts when he comes home. Now stop it right now and straighten up this room."

My Father worked in construction and was away from home a lot. When he returned on weekends my Mother would meet him at the door with a belt. We almost always got a whipping before we got a hug. He never hurt us; the whippings were always more bluster than substance.
After pondering this great mystery of life, I’ve decided three things – the way we remember people we once knew is probably totally wrong, our memories of how things used to be are likely completely false and, last but not least, size only matters to adults.

One more thing bothers me, though. Am I wrong about the pink wallpaper?

Fiction South

Happy Father's Day

My Dad will be ninety next month. He lives in a nursing home now, but he is still a vital and witty person. Here are a few pics of him.

Fiction South

Summer Heat and Cool Guitars

It’s summer in Oklahoma, the weather hot and humidity out of sight. As I drink a beer and dink on my laptop, I’m reminded of the many similar summers I experienced while growing up in northwest Louisiana.

We had no air conditioning then, only a ceiling fan and a lot of open windows. As I pay attention to my new Eagle’s CD I’m also reminded that the music we listened to back then was either on scratchy LP’s or radios with tinny speakers.

I like the new Eagle’s album. It has some good songs on the two CD’s, although most a little too country for my tastes. My personal favorite is Last Good Time in Town sung, and I guess written, by Joe Walsh.

Age-wise I’m contemporaries with the Eagles and I’m happy to hear that in their sixties the boys haven’t lost their creative spark. I grew up about thirty miles from the equally tiny town where Don Henley lived but hey, thirty miles across the Texas border may as well have been a thousand miles away.

Walsh’s song features one of his patented guitar riffs, his style as catchy as any musician that ever played the instrument. The lyrics are meaningful but don’t weigh your soul down with some maudlin message. The beat and back-up instrumentation keep enticing you to get out of your seat and start dancing. Yes I did!

A new steamy summer and a fresh Eagles album make me happy and I’m glad the boys, in their sixties, haven’t lost their creative spark. Maybe there’s hope for me yet!

Fiction South

Dirty Rice Dressing - a recipe

Dirty rice is a Cajun specialty. Here is an authentic recipe for Dirty Rice Dressing from the French Acadian Cookbook published by the Louisiana Acadian Handicraft Museum, Inc. in 1955. The recipe was contributed by Dr. W.E. Hunt of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

1 cup rice
1 clove chopped garlic
1 pound ground meat
Salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste
1 pound ground giblets
(from fowl or separate giblets)
Pinch of thyme and sweet basil
1 cup chopped onion
1 bunch green onions and tops chopped
½ cup chopped bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced parsley
½ cup chopped celery

Cook rice in double boiler until fluffy, using enough salted water to 1 inch above rice. Allow to cook unstirred until all water is gone. In one skillet sauté ground meat and giblets in ¼ pound butter until brown; in another skillet sauté onions, pepper, celery and seasoning in ¼ pound butter. Add other ingredients. In large pan mix all above ingredients well, using natural gravy from fowl to moisten.

Louisiana Mystery Writer

Oklahoma Rainbow

Here is a pic taken right after the storm that occurred in central Oklahoma in March, 2009. Friend Kelli McKenna is the photographer.

Eric's Web

Route 66 Writing Contest

Gondwana Press of Edmond, Oklahoma announces its first annual Route 66 Writing Contest. No entry fee. Complete details at Gondwana's website.

Gondwana

Edmond Author's Book Fair

I will be attending the Edmond Author’s Book Fair this Saturday, the 24th of January, at the Edmond Historical Society & Museum. The museum is located at 431 S. Boulevard in Edmond, Oklahoma.

The event begins around 1 pm. If you are in the area, please drop by and introduce yourself as I would love to meet you.

Eric Wilder

Eric's Website