Community stories.
Stories about neighbors, small towns and strangers who show up.
The Christmas the Whole Town Showed Up
For four winters I never told one soul in Coldwater County how close we were to going under, and then three days before Christmas I... Read more
The Quilting Circle That Came for Me
The photograph was four inches by six, in a thin gold frame, and for five weeks it was the only thing in that room that... Read more
The Morning His Town Brought In His Harvest
The drought broke me before it broke the wheat. I want to start there, because most people who knew me back then would have said... Read more
The Yard a Stranger Cleared
My name is Arlene Whitcroft. I am seventy-eight years old, and I know what my neighbors say about my yard. I’ve known for two years.... Read more
The Stranger She Chose As Her Father
At 9:47 on the last Friday morning in May, I was standing at the end of the third row of folding chairs in the Cedar... Read more
The Layaway Angel No One Knew
The first time I caught my mother stealing, she was seventy-one years old, and she was stealing from herself. I want to tell you what... Read more
The Headstone The Whole Town Bought
The grave had been bare for eleven months when I finally admitted to myself that it might stay that way. I want to be honest... Read more
The Diner That Never Charged
For thirty years I ran a diner on Route 9 and I never once kept a tab. People think that is a saying. It is... Read more
The Useless Barn That Saved a Town
For most of my life I was ashamed of my father’s barn. I need to say that plainly, right at the start, because everything else... Read more
The Turkey Swap That Fed the Street
I have lived in the same building on Larkspur Street for nineteen years, and for eighteen of them I would have told you I knew... Read more
- ← Previous
- 1
- …
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- More Stories →