Ok I sat this blog up a couple of weeks ago with the intention of posting items of interest as a new years resolution. The purpose of this blog is to inform and educate as well as provide a few updates about my family. I have a variety of interests that revolve around the history or prehistory of North America. I was initially trained as an archaeologist at the State University of Kansas (that is Kansas State University for those of you east of the Kansas River). After acquiring my formal education there, I decided to return to safe confines of Southeast Kansas for job prospects and matrimonial intents. Neither of these worked out as my first job was a bovine fecal relocation officer. As for the matrimonial prospects, well that was to wait a little longer. Deciding I was a failure at both at the time I gathered up my possession (yes it is singular) and headed west, to Colorado. I digress here to put some order into my life history so that you might get a better grip on where I come from, who I am and where I am fixin to go next. Just remember I am a small town Kansas country boy trapped in Suburban life!
Another one of my goals is to help keep me thinking and writing as I have a series of poem both finished and unfinished that you can help complete. I have also started a historical novel based on a post-Civil War character that is trying to find his way back home. It is entitled the Kansan. Enjoy.
June 1970:
Kurt is brought into this world by James and Cristy a couple of hippies who could find nothing to protest in Southeast Kansas. Kurt os fed green beans and gets his diaper changed. Life is good.
Summer 1976:
On our nation's bi-centennial, we celebrated this glorious occasion on a farm near Cleo Springs, Okalhoma. It was here that I was dared to pee on an electric fence for the first and last time. Thirty-two year later it still hurts. Now the thing that you also have to understand, that in Cleo, this is entertainment and whether you are a small town boy like me or a rancher like my cousin, there is still that insatiable desire to try and get someone to something foolish (if only I had a nickel for every time I did something foolish). As the saying goes...Fool me once shame one me, fool me twice, well then, shame one me. (well yes I did pee on that fence again).
Summer 1978:
James decides to move his family west. The booming metropolis of Baxter Springs is just too much for the familial serenity. After a 14 mile north and 8 mile jaunt we land in the up and coming community of West Mineral....yes there was an East Mineral but a bitter civil war between east and west rendered East Mineral to rubbish never to be seen or heard from again. Actually we moved to the neighboring suburb of Carona. West Mineral has all sorts of suburbs, Carona, Roseland, Stipville, 32 Camp, you get the picture. This is a major urban fixture in southeast Kansas. At Carona, Iwas sent to the neighboring MIT (Mineral Institute of Technology) for my formal education and ergo become a Mineralite from which I later learn that they have a vaccine for. Although I never did get the shot, I had a lot of fun growing up there.
December 1987:
Kurt shoots his first deer. A very nice doe on that last day of deer season. I soon discovered that I did not have my deer permit on me and raced home to both get my dad and said permit. In the process I roasted the transmission in our '74 Toyota Landcruiser. We eventually got the deer and Landcruiser home at a cost of $700.00. I figure the statute of limitations has run out on the KDWP citing me for no deer tag.
August 1987:
Kurt discovers that copenhagen can turn you greener than a Pioneer hat. I become a fan of the legendary snuff.
It is late so I leave you with this verse.
There are no cowboys or home on the range
Cattle aren't driven, they ride by truck and train
Trails like Chisholm and Shawnee are no more
They've been replaced by 80 and route 44
