Unheralded

DAVE VORLAND: It Occurs To Me — Era Bell Thompson

Dorette and I are spending some time in Grand Forks. The weather is touch and go this time of year, so I brought along some reading material. One of the books is Liesl Olson’s “Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis.” Of most interest to me is her account of the black writer, Era Bell Thompson, 1905-1986, who had …


Unheralded

DAVE VORLAND: It Occurs To Me —Going Home Again

Here’s a final photograph, and some thoughts about it, from the recent trip Dorette and I made to attend the jazz festival in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe all said you can’t go home again. Wolfe even used the expression as the title of one of his novels. But I keep trying. For example, at …


DAVE VORLAND: It Occurs To Me — The Adventure Begins

About this time in 1965, I arrived at the huge depot pictured above on my way to Northwestern University to begin a master’s degree in journalism. I was burdened down with heavy luggage, so the subway to Evanston wasn’t an option. I needed to transfer to yet another rail line. According the diary I kept, I ran out of time …

DAVE VORLAND: It Occurs To Me — Thought Of Wes Christenson

Today (Monday) Dorette and I returned from Chicago to attend the annual jazz festival, an event we’ve seldom missed in recent years. I also marked the 50th anniversary of my graduation from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. How time flies. On Thursday, we took a subway train to Evanston and wandered about the NU campus, including a stop at …