Have You Ever Been Seasick? By Bud Biery, Hutchinson, Kansas; Sean McArdle, Tetbury, England; and Tracy Million Simmons, Emporia, Kansas * Seasickness on the Open Sea By Bud Biery In 1977, somewhere between Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Alameda, California, a storm suddenly struck our battle group. The USS Wabash, my home for three years, was in the process of refueling and moving stores to the USS Kittyhawk on our port side and a cruiser on the starboard side. We were … [Read more...] about Have You Ever Been Seasick?
Emporia Kansas
Seasickness Postcards
Recently, while researching transatlantic ocean liner travel in 1926 from Liverpool to New York City, I discovered a category of postcards that I had never known existed. This occurred while speculating on whether Gladys Gamble Parks (1908-1993), an English woman from Hull, might have been seasick during her ten-day immigration voyage to America. One online search about seasickness led to another. Soon, I discovered the existence of "seasick cards." Later, a postcard … [Read more...] about Seasickness Postcards
Researching Robert
A Letter Home from New London by Jim Potter Thanks to a McPherson, Kansas, newspaper article published in June 1918, researchers can read a personal letter from Robert Parks. The correspondence gives the viewer an exceptional glimpse at a moment in Robert’s life while he was training in the United States Navy, at New London, Connecticut. Prior to Parks' arrival at the United States Receiving Barracks, State Pier, New London, he had already attained a rating of Electrician Third … [Read more...] about Researching Robert
Researching Robert
Robert's Adoptive Parents by Jim Potter Robert Walter Borchart, born in Inman, Kansas, in 1897, was the second son of Richard and Anna Borchart. Richard died in 1899 of an accidental gunshot wound. In 1908, while living in Inman with her four boys, ages three to thirteen, Anna was adjudged insane for the third time and was sent to Osawatomie Insane Asylum. Anna’s commitment to the asylum meant the boys, with no existing adult relatives, were back in the care of an orphanage. After a … [Read more...] about Researching Robert
Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town
(To listen to the audio of this blog post, use the purple play button.) Gravedigger's Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town by Cheryl Unruh Book Review Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town is Cheryl Unruh’s latest masterpiece, a memoir written in prose poetry that transported me to my childhood. I can smell the Folger's coffee that gave Mom an extra spark. I too, grew up with bottle caps, firecrackers, collecting stamps, and reading wanted posters at … [Read more...] about Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town
