Studebaker Stories

After all the noise and smoke and killings of 1881, Tombstone, Arizona began attracting scribes the way a buffalo corpse attracts vultures and flies. It seemed as if every newspaper back East had to have an eyewitness account of the big shootout between the Earps and the Clantons. These overly romantic seekers of Truth and Beauty inevitably ended up sitting across from Big Minnie, buying her drink after drink at the Bird...

Jill walked through the front door of the Bluebird Bar covered with snow. She got a mischievous grin on her face when she saw me. She walked up to my station and set her large thermos on the bar between us. She had on a huge over-sized knit hat and mittens that matched her black pea coat. It was obviously starting to come down pretty thick outside. It had only been flurries when I had started my shift at seven but the wai...

Many years later, after taking my virginity, Rosie would tell me that it was what I wrote to her in third grade that initially endeared me to her. A couple mean boys had taunted her about her skin color on the playground and I was a silent observer of the incident. My heart went out to her when I saw her lower lip tremble, followed closely by a steady stream of large tears wetting her dark cheeks. She didn’t run away in s...

I’m so hungry from your love, My sweet child. We tossed all morning Now toss me a salad. Something fresh With tart and crunch to it. Peel off and carefully Tear some fresh purple-veined Romaine As I watch with sleepy sated eyes. Next a small wedge of iceberg Crisp and scrumptious. I am still savoring your girlish taste In my mouth, And your face still flushed, Fresh from loving. I offer my round red cherry Tomatoes Bursti...

I am a farmer of fertile Kansas fields, considered by most to be a kind man with a welcoming smile. A pillar of the small farming community I call home, an elder at my church, and decent enough looking that women have commented on it over the years, particularly my blue eyes, which contrast with my weathered skin, I guess. I always choose my words carefully with men and women alike, and I like to think I am polite to a fa...