SAD DAY IN LITERARY HISTORY
Early this morning my email brought news of the death of Elmer Kelton. He has been on the top of my prayer list and yesterday I almost drove to San Angelo to visit him. I had left his addresses at the hospital at home and didn't know where to go so I came back home from Abilene saying manana. I sent the notice to everyone that I thought knew him. Then tonight I was called by a young reporter from the Abilene Reporter-News who knew nothing about Elmer and I presumed had been given my name by Glenn Dromgoole. I tried to fill him in and hope it comes out ok. I have never been quoted correctly by a reporter yet. I told him how Elmer never mentioned in his autobiography all of the recognitions he received including invitations to the Bush White House for the National Book Festval when he and Ann got caught visiting Washington on 911 and took a week to get a flight back home.
And then tonight I got a report that Charles Linck died today also. Charles and I were great friends. We both wore bolos and one time he told me to not keep the ends even and I have tried to remember that when I put a bolo on. He and his wife Ernestine were long time Folklore friends along with Elmer.
But I got a bright literary report from a bubbly Margaret Waring reporting that she had spent the day with Johnny Boggs who is researching John Wesley Hardin at the library and museum in Comanche. Margaret is the forever librarian in Comanche. She enjoyed it so much she had to share the experience with me.
This morning my son called from Rotterdam and later I got an email from Mary Kathryn from the hotel telling about their plans. They saw a lot of different kinds of wind turbines that differed from the ones we had stopped to look at north of Clyde. She said they wanted to drive to Delft to see the old fashioned Dutch windmills.
I finally caught up on some of my writing projects. Finished the Administrative Council minutes for the church and got some corrections. My column for the Livestock Weekly was hard because Elmer encouraged me to submit a column back in 1986 to encourage farmers and ranchers to use computers to increase their productivity and today I told about a company in the Netherlands who have used computers to create a robotic automatic milking machine that cows learn that when their bag is full they walk in, get milked and walk out without a dairy hand in sight. Never before have dairy farmers been relieved of the tedious duties. But they haven't developed an automatic branding machine that I know of.
Tomorrow my SS class is going to have trouble with Genesis 32-36. Jacob meets Esau after Esau vowed to kill him and then his daughter Dinah causes a massacre.
This morning my automatic rain gauge had .06 and then I heard thunder and a little shower dropped another .2 that dried up by 9:30 when I walked to the mailbox. Shower showed up all around all day but not here.
Early this morning my email brought news of the death of Elmer Kelton. He has been on the top of my prayer list and yesterday I almost drove to San Angelo to visit him. I had left his addresses at the hospital at home and didn't know where to go so I came back home from Abilene saying manana. I sent the notice to everyone that I thought knew him. Then tonight I was called by a young reporter from the Abilene Reporter-News who knew nothing about Elmer and I presumed had been given my name by Glenn Dromgoole. I tried to fill him in and hope it comes out ok. I have never been quoted correctly by a reporter yet. I told him how Elmer never mentioned in his autobiography all of the recognitions he received including invitations to the Bush White House for the National Book Festval when he and Ann got caught visiting Washington on 911 and took a week to get a flight back home.
And then tonight I got a report that Charles Linck died today also. Charles and I were great friends. We both wore bolos and one time he told me to not keep the ends even and I have tried to remember that when I put a bolo on. He and his wife Ernestine were long time Folklore friends along with Elmer.
But I got a bright literary report from a bubbly Margaret Waring reporting that she had spent the day with Johnny Boggs who is researching John Wesley Hardin at the library and museum in Comanche. Margaret is the forever librarian in Comanche. She enjoyed it so much she had to share the experience with me.
This morning my son called from Rotterdam and later I got an email from Mary Kathryn from the hotel telling about their plans. They saw a lot of different kinds of wind turbines that differed from the ones we had stopped to look at north of Clyde. She said they wanted to drive to Delft to see the old fashioned Dutch windmills.
I finally caught up on some of my writing projects. Finished the Administrative Council minutes for the church and got some corrections. My column for the Livestock Weekly was hard because Elmer encouraged me to submit a column back in 1986 to encourage farmers and ranchers to use computers to increase their productivity and today I told about a company in the Netherlands who have used computers to create a robotic automatic milking machine that cows learn that when their bag is full they walk in, get milked and walk out without a dairy hand in sight. Never before have dairy farmers been relieved of the tedious duties. But they haven't developed an automatic branding machine that I know of.
Tomorrow my SS class is going to have trouble with Genesis 32-36. Jacob meets Esau after Esau vowed to kill him and then his daughter Dinah causes a massacre.
This morning my automatic rain gauge had .06 and then I heard thunder and a little shower dropped another .2 that dried up by 9:30 when I walked to the mailbox. Shower showed up all around all day but not here.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 8:20 PM
1 Comments:
Papa, I am very sorry to hear about Elmer Kelton. I feel very privilaged to have been able to meet him and Ann. Thank you for bringing me that honor! - Valerie
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