Sameold-Soitwas 2020.Pdf
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Copyright © 2020 by H. Kirk Rainer ISBN Pending Published by VANAGON VAGABOND The book is being published as a “Campaign Version” and as such, is not being sold or distributed for profit. For other works and information, visit www.hkirkrainer.org. Other books by H. Kirk Rainer include: A Once and Always Father A Father and Future Felon His Children are Far from Safety IN THE LESSENING Tall Tells on Tredegar Cove Him Who Cares Till When CONSPIRANT COLONIES TO END AN EAGLE COURAGE IN THE CRUSH Note, that the stories, characters, and contents are my version of “creative nonfiction”. I am deeply touched by the subject matter, each story representing some relation to (and in) my life, and the remarkably colorful and sometimes courageous folks represented in some way, alias, or architype. The cover design is purposed to look like red clay, a common soil in the area, and the image of a house and yard, taken from an actual photo of a key property on Stebbins Street; this image is converted to something similar to an ink-carving / woodcut my mother made years ago while taking an art class. I believe her design was a weathered woman working in a garden or field. The two tones of yellow or gold in the cover illustration, text font and fill, are symbolic of hope—as with the rising of the sun, the emitting of light that often taken for granted, but can change one’s attitude amid figurative darkness as is often presented directly or indirectly in these Stories on Stebbins Street. The more things change, the more they are [not] the same; [sometimes things change forever]. - Alphonse Karr (adapted) South on Stebbins Street i Yellowhammer Yelp iii Time makes everything 1-1 All right then 2-1 Sudden change 3-1 Human, aren’t we? 4-1 Bipolar, manic, or depressed 5-1 Say goodbye 6-1 Our little town 7-1 Ash grove 8-1 The long, terrible story 9-1 Anger and hate 10-1 Seen it all 11-1 This perverse cruelty 12-1 It’s just that 13-1 Barely understood 14-1 Reality exists 15-1 All but equal 16-1 Really, equal? 17-1 Worst of all 18-1 All the wars 19-1 A most authentic thing 20-1 Bad to worse 21-1 A repulsive need 22-1 More than meets the eye 23-1 Something so precious 24-1 Death is… 25-1 Life is about… 26-1 That mean dog 27-1 I’ve seen a look 28-1 That we can sustain 29-1 People stopped being 30-1 People took awful 31-1 Not human until 32-1 They vanish 33-1 Even our fears 34-1 Nothing more or less 35-1 At its coming and going 36-1 In the human spirit 37-1 Felt him quite 38-1 No self at all 39-1 Curves of form 40-1 Lived to help 41-1 Strongest ever was 42-1 Life everywhere is… 43-1 Fascinated with 44-1 Fallible 45-1 Learned to fake 46-1 Human or something 47-1 Suffer with bigger stuff 48-1 Deceived…deceiving 49-1 Unhappy, ungrateful 50-1 Separate, something less 51-1 Creativity, then conformity 52-1 What most of us long for? It’s never too late… South Stebbins Street is located at the foot of Coldwater Mountain, the West-end of Calhoun County, Alabama. It is (or was) a working-class community, the sort of place that is weathering social and economic change as many towns that have seen better days. Calhoun County is a profile case of post-industrialization; it is a place that flourished in heavy industry of iron and steel, a somewhat smaller Birmingham but significant—where, within the span of four or five decades, much of this commerce has ceased, left only the memories and vacant properties. A key house on Stebbins is shown in part on the book cover, a modified photo of the street from Google. Houses dating back to the much earlier time align each narrow street, the whole of which connects at highway 202, center of Anniston, Oxford, leading to Highways 431, 78 and Interstate 20. The stories are fact and fiction; memories and make-believe; the creative license to add and augment time, place, A story has no beginning or end: and person. There are relationships and arbitrarily one chooses that relations between/ among the stories, moment of experience from which but the aim is that each story be its own, to look back or from which to look infusing what is needed for a short story, ahead. one event or episode in the series. All - Graham Greene, End of the Affair stories begin on Stebbins but intentionally take us to other times and places not too far from home, a broad them, still within the realm that “It happens—it has...should or could”, for me and maybe you too. The stories are told in first-person: a Stories have to be told or they die, nascent narrator, Howard, generally and when they die, we can't accepted among the folks—whatever remember who we are or why role played—but having too little we're here. exposure to know everything about - Sue Monk Kidd everyone, potentially getting it as it goes, Howard intercedes, insight and introspection intermingled with dialogue around conflict, a problem or predicament in a broader context of changing, challenging time and places. Sincerely, he tries to be helpful before being shown the door if the door is even cracked, the encounter cordial, and the company and conversation welcomed. i There is some comfort or benefit in sharing problems, even and especially to a stranger or one less familiar, unknowing but potentially caring—at least at first. There is no doubt that an unfamiliar or uninformed audience offers a real sounding There is no doubt fiction board for airing laundry or even letting it all makes a better job of the truth. hang out, impulsive and impromptu, real, or - Doris Lessing imagined, storied or altogether, a story. For good or bad, Howard is such or at least appears so, the rest to be determined. Introductions followed by listening and sympathizing, are the beginning of a great story; one that offers more than the moment; perhaps a backstory, a love story, a tragedy, or a fable. There is love and there are lies, the two as inseparable as there is always more than one Every great love starts view, account and agenda, remembrance, with a great story... recollection, and rumination. - Nicholas Sparks From the happily-ever-after to the ancient tales of the Brothers Grimm, stories and their tellers are among the anticipations and affections of child and child-like. The ideal story ends good to go, the bad one never to be Stories are memory aids, told again. Somehow, the storyteller must find instruction manuals and the richness in the poorness, a silver-lining in a moral compasses. skyline of dark clouds however seldom a - Aleks Krotoski, breakthrough. Whether words or thoughts, the storyteller may leave more questions than answers but still, a story of (or about) yesterday may well stand tomorrow. There is something in Reminiscing on storytelling lends me to storytelling…that remember an uncle, Pete, his talent, and demands the redemptive technique at delivering a story that, sometimes acts that what falls to at repeated, was always captivating—even in my least be offered the experience as an adult! Where he acquired this chance to be restored. art form I do not know. Perhaps his talent was - Flannery O’Connor from years of reading or others that passed this on, a legacy of ancient origin. No matter the origin but still my own desires to do the story right. ii Yellowhammer Yelp is the yearning of the state’s bird, nostalgic and sentimental; one that calls out of the past, of what Stebbins and surrounding were like before, the supposed better times. This contrived creature’s cry from yesteryears can tell of the seasons, growth, and decline, and much more as to people’s lives, passions and pleasures, problems, and plights. “Yellowhammer, what happened,” I call, from which returns something, from the here to there, from real to the surreal, from the matter to the mystery, everywhere and everything in between. This creature calls from long ago, say 200 years, the land was densely forested with clayish and sandy soils—full of rocks—and a mountain within site, Cheaha, Alabama’s highest elevation, and the Creek Indian nation. It sounds that the land was rich in the material resources [T]hey were bound, many of them, for iron that eventually led to a “closed” to these mountains with something community, Woodstock, shortly after longer and harder than nails or the “War of Northern Aggression”. even chains. Beyond the ironworks came decades of - Rick Bragg, The Most They Ever Had growth interrupted by climatic events and experiences such as The Great Depression, more war, and related changes to of the Army’s presence, other economic and social changes. What was ceded as the vision of industrialists eventually became “the model city” complete with the state’s first electrical public lighting, preparatory schools, a lavish resort, and a streetcar system. Thus, there came several key changes: “White flight” – whites moved from “the city” to county lending to the decline of the city schools, etc. De-industrialization – textiles and metal works—the bedrock of the local economy—fall one by one, lending to the losses of upper mobility, a working wage and job security.