Waiting for Hank Aaron: Reflecting on 1968 Fifty Years Later
I waited, listening to AM radio, for Hank Aaron to hit a home run. We were a baseball family–Minnesota Twins’…
Category: Life Observed
A Cowboy and a Good Horse: West Texas
The sun is in my eyes when I first meet the horse wrangler, which might be why he doesn’t fit…
Photography Class: Failure is an Option
I lean toward the lethargic, work-wise. I’m not alone. There are others just like me, floating along on the stream of life…
Observing a Writer at Work: BYOB
Last week as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, celebrated by parents in the USA who believe their…
You Never Forget Your First Time: Food Love
You never forget your first time. Furtive and fumbling, painful or sometimes (should we even admit this?) disappointing, that experience…
How I Almost Became a Professional Wrestler
When I was 5 years old, I decided to become a wrestler. The All-Star kind, not the Olympic sort. My…
Ciao for now, Minneapolis
So long, Minneapolis. The AWP conference is over and I head back to Austin, Texas this morning. This was my…
Hello, Minneapolis. Remember Me?
Tomorrow I fly out of my new hometown, Austin Texas, to my old hometown, Minneapolis. The annual AWP Conference for…
Heidi Beemer Wants to Go to Mars
If you grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, you are forgiven for thinking that we would all be living…
Not My Grandmother’s First Rodeo
I figured out that my grandmother really loved me on a bitter winter’s afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota when I…