“No house should ever be on any hill or on anything. It should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other.”—Frank Lloyd Wright

It was said the Frank Lloyd Wright was responsible for the unique home constructed against a hill in what was called Sterling Addition, the residence of a jeweler. It has changed owners over the years but it still catches the eye of anyone passing by and this will probably continue forever.

And it wasn’t so long ago that I mentioned the time Marv Dauer, Dale Defore and I visited an architect while sixth grade students in Miss Frost’s class. Some years have passed since then. Dale hasn’t changed that much and Marv still looks somewhat the same; his hair color has shifted some.

Again I brought up our visit to a local architect but they couldn’t remember the visit and I can’t remember the architect’s name. The house I attempted to design in architectural drawing and the final product ruled out any further progress in that direction.

I wouldn’t have brought this up again if I hadn’t run across the Frank Lloyd Wright quote mentioned above and how this house and hill “live together each happier for the other.”

As usual I miss getting my book from the library back in time so there will be another fine. Sunday I walked the book down to the “golden pond” or probably better know as the Mill Pond. Being colorblind the stuff that occupies most of the pond now has a “golden tint” to it. I sat in one of the park benches near the water and attempted to read a few passages of the Ayn Rand book. She has always been too complicated for me. I think I was able to get through at least one chapter before I returned it the library where I ran into John Murphy, a classmate returning some books. John and Sue attend Marv’s night ought.

Any Rand’s book quotes Pascal as saying; “I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise,” and Descartes “I think, therefore I am.”

In school for one of their assignments the girls were asked to write a few paragraphs about why being a child was such a joyous thing. Rand didn’t agree that it was joyous and shocked her classmates with “a scathing denunciation of childhood.”

Last week a Northfield author was the guest reader at Plainview and shared his book that I could have purchased based on the life of an Indian pitcher in the early years of baseball. All were impressed with his presentation as he read excerpts from the book. I asked the author about the process for selling a book. A few days later an envelope arrived containing the book “Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write.” We’ll see. And when I find the name of his book I will make it public.

I think it was August not July that the Maple View roadway went into construction making it difficult to get there. Now one has to go north on 218 until you can turn right about a mile out of town and then you can reach Maple View, an extra six miles a day if you work there. It is possible but tricky riding a bike out there but it can be done.

Last week I walked home through the Oakwood Cemetery where I stopped to pay a visit to Clark Lillquist’s grave sight. Clark had a little Bukowski in him and a touch of Brautigan. Clark opened all the windows on the coldest winter day at the Junior College and then opened the pop cooler to sit in and warm up.

My interest in writing poetry was inspired by the deceased Richard Brautigan as well as the late Charles Bukowski who said: “This is very important – to take leisure time. Pace is the essence, without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything whether you’re an actor, anything, a housewife….there has to be great pauses between highs, where you do nothing at all. You just lay on your bed and stare at the ceiling.”

Another: “The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you. The situation so repelled me that I was driven to drink, starvation, and mad females, simply as an alternative.”