Category Archives: Stories – From Life & Elsewhere

Signs of the Times, Stories - From Life & Elsewhere

Wood Thrush: The Return of the Magic Flute

May 8, 2015 Chuck Fager 1 Comment

A Wood Thrush & The Magic Flute

(Nope, not talking about the Mozart Opera.)

Heard a wood thrush yesterday, or maybe several. Haven’t heard one in at least two years.

Wasn’t expecting or looking for it; which is the best way to encounter them. In fact, such a visitation was the last thing on my mind.

It happened at a trailer park in rural Robeson County, NC. Among Carolina’s one hundred counties, Robeson is the poorest and the most crime-ridden. I don’t go there for fun, or for nature’s wonders, but to see people who are important to me.

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Current Affairs, Hard-Core Quaker, Remarkable Friends, Signs of the Times, Social Justice, Stories - From Life & Elsewhere, Stories-Quaker, War & Peace

A Quaker Story about U.S. Concentration Camps in World War Two

February 20, 2015 Chuck Fager Leave a comment

A Quaker Story of Remembrance –and Maybe Prophecy

Pirates Six, Cubs Three

Pittsburgh, PA, sometime in the 1980s.

I wasn’t having a good night. And I hadn’t had a good day. Needleman in the Washington office had called just after lunch. “Nelson,” he barked, We need you here right away.”

I had to help the boss get ready for a big hearing before the Defense Systems Commission. Tomorrow.

I told him I’d promised to take the kids to a ballgame.

Needleman wasn’t impressed. “They play ballgames in Pittsburgh every night, Nelson,” he said. “We get a chance at a hundred million dollar contract once every ten years, if we’re lucky. This hearing could win it for us. The boss needs your data, and he needs you here to explain it to him. Tonight.”

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Stories - From Life & Elsewhere

Garrison Keillor & Me: A Startling Revelation

January 30, 2015 Chuck Fager 1 Comment

Revelation & Memory: Garrison Keillor

Saw Garrison Keillor last night. Not his show; just him, solo except for a short set with a local guitarist.

He was very much himself: baggy suit, long red tie, long red socks, red tennis shoes.

Keillor-shoes

He told stories and sang songs for two hours straight. The Durham Performing Arts Center was pretty well filled, mostly with those of or near his age.

He and I are in the same generation, born only months apart. That relates to my big revelation about him, which will be disclosed here presently, along with a big recollection . . .

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"Dog Days" Diversions, Et Cetera, Stories - From Life & Elsewhere, writing & Such

Dog Days: George & The Cottonmouth

June 27, 2012 Chuck Fager 2 Comments

Dog Days Reading: George & The Cottonmouth

In Memory of My Uncle George Fager

cottonmouth-snake

The first thing I noticed when we drove into my Fager grandparents’ front yard in St. Paul. Kansas was not their small frame house, not the field behind it, nor the barn at the other end of the yard. The first thing I noticed was the outhouse. And I can still recall it clearly after more than sixty years.

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"Dog Days" Diversions, Current Affairs, Signs of the Times, Stories - From Life & Elsewhere, War & Peace

Three Homelands: A Revelation In Ireland

March 16, 2011 Chuck Fager Leave a comment

Three Homelands: A Revelation In Ireland

In December 2010, on a bright but cold afternoon, I took a serious blow to the ego, and what’s left of my cultural pride. It probably did me good, but I’m still rubbing the sore spot: it’s like a bruise that just won’t heal. It started out fine, when I got off a bus not far from Waterford, Ireland, just in time for an interview.