Aitkin Age column: Memories of a young curmudgeon

My latest column for the Aitkin Independent Age is very local indeed, but my goal is to write such that even people who don't personally know what I'm talking about may find it interesting.

Since I’m very far under 60, my memories of Aitkin don’t go as far back as those of many folks but I still remember fondly many places that are no longer here. Thinking of these long-gone shops, I feel I’m old enough to look at kids these days and think that they don’t know what they’re missing.
My favorite place to visit in town was Ben Franklin. Since we were on vacation and there were grandparents around, we had better chances of getting toys when we asked for them there than back at home. There was also the small pet section in the back, where we would spend what seemed like hours but was probably about 10 minutes watching the fish, hamsters and birds. There were bins of candy at one cent each and the front windows were covered with suncatchers, so many so close together so as to look like one huge stained glass window.

 Read the rest here.

Doing this writing professionally for the paper has made me think more about my writing in general, and want to do more of it. I think I will start posting more essays here, maybe warranting a change in the title bar from "an art blog" to "an art and writing blog." Mostly theology and such Catholic matters and reviews of others' works of fiction, I think, but hopefully also snippets of my own works of fiction.