Jimi Hendrix, My Dad, and Me on the Fourth of July (Memoir)

Jimi Hendrix, My Dad, and Me on the Fourth of July (Memoir)

Jul 2, 2025 | memoir, music

I’m the child of hippies. Counter-culture, flowingly-bearded, long-hair-parted-down-the-middle, love children from the Midwest. My mother got pregnant with me after my father returned from being a soldier in Vietnam. And I was named after a hitchhiker named Kip...
The Sweat Lodge in My Backyard (Memoir)

The Sweat Lodge in My Backyard (Memoir)

Jan 26, 2024 | memoir

When I was a kid, I always tried to be normal but it never worked. My lemonade stand was in the center of a cornfield. I often threw the football to myself. And sometimes I wore a Mustang Ranch T-shirt to school, which was a gift my dad acquired from an infamous...
Mrs. Kiffmeyer, My Piano Teacher (Music Memoir)

Mrs. Kiffmeyer, My Piano Teacher (Music Memoir)

Nov 9, 2023 | memoir, music

I walked up the driveway to the top of a small hill in a nice, Minnesotan neighborhood every Thursday afternoon for piano lessons. When I reached the top and opened the front door, I slipped into another world. A curtain drew back from my black-and-white movie and...
Fourth Grade Broke My Face (Memoir)

Fourth Grade Broke My Face (Memoir)

Jul 21, 2023 | memoir

It was late September and I could feel winter coming. The leaves had changed color and the grass was nearly brown. Winter was always around the corner in Granite City. Snow often fell in October and stayed until May. At Westforest Elementary, teachers made us go...