Getting in Touch with an Old Tradition

by blanche manos · leave a comment (edit) Yesterday, my family and I kept up the yearly tradition of putting flowers on the graves of loved ones. Decoration Day is always the same Sunday every May and has been that way for generations. The beautiful little cemetery lies in northeast Oklahoma, surrounded by trees, gentle hills, and a creek […]

Cornered With Nowhere to Run

Cornered With Nowhere to Run

  An excerpt from the soon-to-be-released Moonstruck and Murderous. Ned has gotten herself cornered. I took a deep breath. I was in a tight place with little room to move. Pushing against the inglenook’s brick wall to give myself leverage, I stood up. The brick under my hand moved. What? Was the mortar so aged […]

Winds of Change

This is the second and final installment of my May 5, 1985 Daily Press article about the tornado which destroyed Peggs, Oklahoma on May 2, 1920. In 1920, Walter Neel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters on the Gid Morgan farm, two and a fourth miles southeast of Peggs. The storm went a mile […]

The Peggs Tornado

Since it is the 99  year anniversary of the Peggs tornado, and although I re-published it last year at this time, I do so again today. For a time, I wrote feature stories for The Tahlequah Daily Press. On May 5, 1985, The Press published an article I wrote about the tornado that destroyed Peggs, […]

A Small World After All

A Small World After All

God’s Small World God made a tiny, shiny world in blades of grass and flowers, Where crickets creep and spiders spin and dewdrops fall in showers. And in this small, this crawly world are secrets and surprises. The caterpillars creeping here wear summertime disguises. No one but God could think of it; I don’t know […]

Moonstruck and Murderous

Moonstruck and Murderous

  The people at the Carver Estate are a little–how shall I say it–odd? Or, are they strange-acting because they are moonstruck? Pat, Ned McNeil’s friend, thinks they are both moonstruck and murderous. Is the blue moon during this month of March affecting everyone, including Ned?  The month is March–a strange month–a rainy, windy, untrustworthy […]