Someone, I don’t remember who, said “Joe Munson has a target on his back. He’s an outlier with a history.” In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that I’ve had guns pulled…
Posts published in “Essays”
I like to keep up with the Academy awards to see just how much Hollywood has lost its mind from year to year. And since America is marinated in the juices of Hollywood, it’s a…
On my first trip to California, I hitchhiked on U.S. Route 460, which is a major East/West artery. Right away I got a ride from two girls who were about my age; I was still…
In this space last time we covered the early life of Eliza Durbin Bowman. Additionally, the previous piece contained some history of the relations of Indians and whites in Humboldt County in the 1850s and…
There is nothing quite like a good nap, especially when one is getting on in years and the normal nighttime sleep cycle starts getting interrupted by certain hydrological imperatives, the accumulated stressors of middle age,…
If you’re a politician these days it’s hard to separate yourself from the pack. Everybody wants better schools, affordable healthcare, a livable wage, an unpolluted environment, less crime, and fewer homeless and drug addicts on…
You never know what you’ll turn up at a book sale. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. While working on the Mendocino County history I’m writing I was thrilled to pick up “Mineral Commodities…
At 16, I passed the GED exam, received a high school diploma and was granted emancipation from my parents. I asked my dad if I should join the army. “Hell, no,” he said. “You don’t…
In my father's day, people who did specialized, skilled things were called engineers. He was an electronics engineer. He maintained the radar apparatus at Chincoteague Island, watching for German U-boats. Later he designed circuitry for…