Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
Where I live, summer wafts in on merry waves of music. It rises like yellow daffodils from parks, bandshells and tavern courtyards. Summer is a song here in Appleton, and we privileged mortals just have to find a seat somewhere and listen. Last night, as I sat in a lawn chair and listened to the [...]
Yesterday, my mom and I treated ourselves to the Appleton City band concert. We have a standing Tuesday night date at Pierce Park in the summer. We generally park our folding chairs in exactly the same spot, audience right, in the grass near the playground. My mom has been going to these concerts for more [...]
You can find an example of all that’s good and right in this world on a city block near me. There, a series of Little Library structures invite wanderers to nourish their souls. “Take a tiny piece of art, leave a tiny piece of art,” invites one. “Take a book, leave a book,” says another. [...]
The little boy sat cross-legged on the sidewalk with his head tilted up toward the band shell and, along with the mostly much older crowd sprawled out behind him, showed us all how multigenerational the gift of music can be. For the past 110 years, the Appleton City Band has been hosting Tuesday night concerts [...]
We understand logistics, and lifeguards who need to leave for college, and musicians who are also teachers that have to prepare their classrooms for the start of the school year, and yoga instructors with businesses to run, but, man oh man, do we hate to say good-bye to summer. Especially with a whole month to [...]