Category Archives: love

An Imaginary (but not unlikely) Fathers’ Day Conversation with my Daughter

Posted on June 18, 2021 by jpkenna

SHE: Happy Fathers’ Day! And I see your new book is on a free promotion–for five days. On Kindle. ME: A chance to save $2.99. People should be beating down Amazon’s door! Here I am, hoping people take the bait, … Continue reading →

Posted in love, marriage, nostalgia, rural life, writing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Wallace Stegner and Joe Hill–Was He Guilty?

Posted on November 18, 2019 by jpkenna

On November 19th, 104 years ago, Joe Hill was executed by the State of Utah. The young itinerant laborer was born Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in 1879. After emigrating from Sweden to the United States he took the name Joseph Hillstrom, … Continue reading →

Posted in history, labor, love, social criticism, social protest, song writing, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ivan Doig (1939-2015)–I Miss Your World

Posted on April 13, 2015 by jpkenna

Back about 1980, I was introduced to a town I’d never seen, reading a description by a newly acclaimed 40-year-old writer. And it stayed with me–a mid-1940s scene of a very young boy being happily dragged around by his ranch-hand, … Continue reading →

Posted in history, labor, love, Montana, nostalgia, social criticism, writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Up the Inside Passage

Posted on February 10, 2015 by jpkenna

July, 1898.  16-year-old Mike Scanlon has let himself be detained, quite willingly, at a new Utopian socialist colony along the upper reaches of Puget Sound, north of Seattle. He is now “back on track” following the original plan of his … Continue reading →

Posted in history, labor, love, nostalgia, railroad construction, Utopian Movement, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Visit to the Home of the Future Socialist Leader– Part Two

Posted on July 31, 2014 by jpkenna

  May, 1894: Social activist Norah O’Hanlon Quinn, now married to former priest Daniel Quinn, accompanies him on the last leg of their trip out to the Midwest. Expecting to visit American Railway Union leader Eugene Debs and his wife … Continue reading →

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“A Terrible Beauty Is Born”

Posted on May 15, 2014 by jpkenna

  General Sir John Maxwell’s decision to quash even the thought of rebellion in Ireland–by sending 16 men to the firing squad, mostly young men, among them poets and teachers–had the unintended consequence of shifting world opinion of the 1916 … Continue reading →

Posted in Easter Rebellion, history, Ireland, Irish poetry, love, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Along Chuckanut’s Shore

Posted on April 5, 2014 by jpkenna

July 4th, 1890 Following a winter of separation, Susie Taylor teaching school in Seattle and Jimmy Scanlon working railroad construction up in Fairhaven, the couple are reunited for the holiday.  Excerpt from Beyond The Divide: Leaving behind the throngs on … Continue reading →

Posted in history, labor, love, railroading, writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments