I. Road Hand, 9/5. Frontenac WFC ticker, Dow up 29. Friday air yellow, please reduce travel. Too late for that. 87º at 9:34. No AC, US-61N to Hannibal. Fifty miles to Cuivre River. White Memorial Wildlife Area. 64 miles at 10:06. 88º at 10:36—windy. No one on this road. I'm doing 60 mph, comfy. Missed … Continue reading Midlanding, Sept. 5-18, 2014
Meramec State Park, August 22-24
I wrote nothing the whole time at Meramec. We camped, we floated, we sweated. Friday I camped with one of my five cousins, Lyle. He picked me up in his Sierra. I gave him a quick tour of the house. His brother had been here, a few years ago at holiday time. We crawled along Hanley and I regretted having suggested we go that way. Big Bend, Jack—quit forgetting about Big Bend.
Just getting my camp gear loaded into the truck I was sweating. He was sweating at work and never stopped. He must've hauled ass to get to my place when he did—left the mill at 3:50, down 70 to Soulard, fight the good fight along 64/170 to College City—I expected him at 5:30 but he got here at ten after. I was only a third of the way through a manhattan solidarity said I shouldn't have. But solidarity lost its good fight.
Continue with this travelogue...
Sam A. Baker State Park, August 8-10
I. Getting There.Leaving 9:25a, cloudy...we're listening to the radio...the market is mixed, I did a bit of work this morning, B is driving..."I Touch Myself," I have an inexplicable memory of getting off a plane when I hear this song, of disembarking at the moment when you say "bye now" to the stewardess...and I remember … Continue reading Sam A. Baker State Park, August 8-10
St. Francois State Park, July 18-20, 2014
I. Friday at Site 88. ...In which Pat sets up his erstwhile tent, an igloo type, smaller than his new one, saying it [the erstwhile tent] is a little musty because he hasn't used it since Wisconsin...And in which Jack buys a couple of bundles of wood from a guy on a golf cart... One of … Continue reading St. Francois State Park, July 18-20, 2014
Klondike Park, Late June 2014
I. Friday Night, Late Enough, Lying in Tent. That roar, that humming noise is not some dope's generator—it's the hulking skulking Labadie power plant. Its white noise comes and goes, I don't mind. That light from a few campsites down, that's the fire of two guys, not real country music but listening to country. I … Continue reading Klondike Park, Late June 2014
Current River Float Trip, May/June 2014
I. Preface. I'm listening to house music in the southeast corner of a hundred-year-old home in University City, MO. B comes in, to investigate. We're investigating each other, all the time. Who you text-a-sizing with, B? What are you looking up now, B? I started by watering the lawn this morning—really what I watered were … Continue reading Current River Float Trip, May/June 2014
Meramec State Park, May 2014
I. Friday Afternoon. We're here! We've been here for about 90 minutes. The tent is up; I'm well into a 12 oz. La Fin; the Cardinals are trying to come back and tie the Cubs. It's 6-5 in the top of the eighth. B is reading her crossword puzzle mystery by Parnell Hall. On the … Continue reading Meramec State Park, May 2014
Farm Party, Spring 2014
I. Preface, Tuesday late afternoon, April 15. How quick things change. On Sunday I was thinking I had the world by a string. Now I am melodramizing to the point I thought, "If I didn't have the farm to look forward to, I'd kill myself right now." I pantomime a skinning knife to my left … Continue reading Farm Party, Spring 2014
Brodkey Was Right, and Not Much Has Changed
In his story "First Love and Other Sorrows," from the 1950s he wrote:
"Toward the end of March, in St. Louis, slush fills the gutters, and dirty snow lies heaped alongside porch steps, and everything seems to be suffocating in the embrace of a season that lasts too long. Radiators hiss mournfully, no one manages to be patient, the wind draws tears from your eyes, the clouds are filled with sadness. Women with scarves around their heads and their feet encased in fur-lined boots pick their way carefully over patches of melting ice. It seems that winter will last forever, that this is the decision of nature and nothing can be done about it."
Harold, you nailed it. It blew like a beast today. There isn't any slush left in the gutters, but there was not long ago. The radiators have all been scrapped and women maybe don't wear scarves about their heads like they used to—but they are still wearing Uggs. And I am not being patient.
Japanese Poem I Am Recalling
I may live on untilI long for this timeIn which I am so unhappy,And remember it fondly. — Fujiwara No Kiyosuke (translated by Kenneth Rexroth)