by jphilo | Aug 27, 2024 | Reflections on the Past
This summer, my fact and fiction shared an afternoon in a tiny little town near the site of the country school where I taught the dear people in the picture above and many more.
The children they once were captured my heart. For decades I have carried the memories of them and Camp Crook, the town where my husband lived and worked, since we moved away. I expected them to fade as time marched forward. Instead they grew more vivid with each trip we made to that wild country to see our friends.
As time went by my memories began to clamor inside me. Insistent. Demanding to be put down in words. To be shaped into a story. I spent years writing and rewriting a factual story based on our life there. Eventually I incorporated the facts into the books in the West River Mystery Series.
This past July my memories came to life again at the Camp Crook All School Reunion. Between 135-150 former students and their families came. Two former students––who used to take a food truck to area rodeos, fairs, and other events––prepared the food. The oldest person in attendance was 102. The oldest former student was 91. The youngest was in her twenties. Seven former teachers, at least one of them a former student as well, attended also.
Everyone talked and ate and looked at tables filled with decades worth of school pictures. Students who attended the school before my time there and those who attended afterwards shared their memories. Amazing memories. This post would never end if I tried to record them all. Even then some would be missed.
In light of that, I will focus on a few memories I hope to carry into the future.
- The delight on the faces of school friends reunited.
- My former student who asked, “Mrs. Philo, was I in your class the year the lamb ate my homework?” I laughed. “Yes, Micki, you were! You have no idea how many times I’ve told that story.”
- Listening to students describe the firm educational foundation they received at Camp Crook’s country school.
- Observing groups of classmates who took pictures together and kept talking long after the reunion was supposed to end.
- Seeing people pitch in to clean up without being asked.
But what captured my heart once again were my former students. Getting to know them as adults. Hearing about their lives and their kids. Watching their eyes light up while we talked. Seeing the bright, eager children they once were still shining from within them.
Gratitude overwhelmed me. It overwhelms me still. For the privilege of teaching these children. For this rare chance to have seen them again. For the realization that my former students are the reason I love to write school scenes with Jane and her students into my mysteries.
This summer my fact and fiction shared an afternoon in a tiny town near the site of the country school where I once taught. The school building is closed but, but I am happy to say, its spirit is alive. May it ever be so in our hearts.
by jphilo | Feb 22, 2024 | Out and About
When it’s time to say goodbye to a place I love, my philosophy is….have a party!
Last week the difficult decision was made to close the school in Camp Crook where I taught from 1980-1985. The closure, the result of declining enrollment and increased costs, makes me and many people in the tiny community it served very sad.
That school was and is the prototype for the one where Jane teaches in the West River Mysteries. Ever since See Jane Run! was released in 2022, I’ve day dreamed about having a reunion for its former students. Not just those I taught, but for the decades of students who attended school there. A few weeks ago, when news came that a Harding County All School Reunion (Camp Crook was and is part of the Harding County School District) was in the works for July of 2024, the timing felt right to turn the day dream into a reality.
I floated the idea to former Camp Crook students and friends via Facebook. They were enthusiastic. Those planning the larger reunion gave their blessing. Within a few hours a caterer and a venue were secured. My husband is up for the trip, and the reunion is now a go.
Plenty of details have to be hammered out before publicizing the event, but I’m working on it. Former students, keep your eyes peeled for updates to come! And when you see the invitation, please, please, please pass it along to others who might want to attend.
After all, is there a better way to celebrate the goodness and the memories of a place that means so much to so many than by throwing a party?
The only thing I can think of that comes close is to write a bunch more West River Mysteries to share the magic and goodness of the place we love. You can bet that during the reunion I’ll be listening to the stories people share. Who knows which ones will find a place in Jane’s future adventures!
by jphilo | Apr 13, 2022 | Reflections on the Past
Spring blizzards on the South Dakota prairie are uncommon, but they do happen. This week’s weather reports and pictures posted by friends who live west of the Missouri River attest to that fact. Their pictures inspired me to locate snapshots my husband and I took when we lived in Camp Crook. In the top one, a much younger me is holding our son Allen. The one below shows my husband Hiram doing the same.
Now for a few fun facts to accompany the photos:
- Our son was born in 1982. Judging from his size, these photos are from 1984 or 1985. My gut says 1985, the last year we lived there.
- This snowstorm was in early May. That’s right. May. I believe a week after our school’s spring field trip, which took place on a beautiful day.
- Hiram’s mother was visiting at the time. She was tired of arriving or departing during raging snowstorms and expressly chose to come in May to avoid bad weather. Instead, she watched 18 inches of snow, fall, then melt and create 18 inches of mud.
- The top photo shows the Methodist Church furthest to the left and the Catholic Church to the right. We lived in the yellow gold house. It is still there, but the building behind us is gone.
- Hiram and Allen are standing to the south of our house. The log buildings are a hunting cabin and its outhouse. Hiram made good use of the outhouse when our electricity was out. We had the presence of mind to fill the bathtub with water when the storm began. Hiram’s mom and I used bathtub water to flush the toilet until we had power again.
- I am not making any of this up.
- The Methodist and Catholic churches in See Jane Run! are similar in appearance to the ones pictured above. Since art imitates life, it is safe to assume that spring blizzards on the South Dakota will appear in future books in the series.
- It is not safe to assume the same for the outhouse. Neither Jane nor Jolene consider outhouses artistic. Not at all.
by jphilo | Jul 1, 2020 | Recipes
The Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book holds a special place in my heart. This little town on the prairie, population 92, celebrated its centennial while we and our baby boy lived there. Cooks from all over Harding County submitted recipes, and I don’t think any were turned away. It was the first publication to accept and feature my work.
All in the form of recipes.
All for foods my mom taught me to cook.
Almost all of them being desserts.
Which just goes to show I’ve had my priorities straight since a young age.
I found this little cook book to be valuable primary source material while I wrote and rewrote at least 10 times–yes, that’s right, 10 times–See Jane Run! Paging through it and seeing familiar names beneath recipes brings back memories of life in a place where the “old timers” had lived in soddies and shacks built by their homesteader parents.
My favorite section is the one for candies and old time recipes. It contains recipes for homemade soap, grandma’s sweet pickles, hand lotion, corn cob syrup, homemade mustard, and something called “stir up in a bucket.”
I have no idea what “stir up in a bucket” is. The first sentence in the instructions which reads as follows–”Add enough bacon grease to keep it from sticking to pan”–doesn’t have me rushing to try it for supper any time soon.
Though I might give it a try to because it has the potential to be a great scene in the sequel to See Jane Run!, which is called Hear Jane Sing!
Before I mix up a batch of “stir up in a bucket,” I’ll post the recipe here in a month or so. Then all of you can give it a whirl with me, and we can talk about how to incorporate it into the story.
Until then, I suggest you try this recipe for fresh peach pie. It’s in the Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book, and I can vouch for its deliciousness. I’ll be making it as soon as the Colorado and Missouri peaches appear in the grocery store just like in 1983 when the little town where I once lived turned 100 years old.
by jphilo | Jun 26, 2020 | Mystery Update
Forty-two years ago this month, the roots that eventually grew into See Jane Run! were planted. My husband (we’d been married for 10 months) had started work at Sky Ranch in northwest South Dakota. I joined him a few weeks later. My mom, my Uncle Jim, and two of his three daughters (my cousins) helped with the move.
The morning we took off, Mom snapped this picture.
It was not an easy move. Everything Hiram and I owned was packed into our used Ford pick up. The pick up proved to be less than reliable. The trip took longer than expected. The house we had rented sight unseen in the little town of Camp Crook turned out to be smaller than anticipated. But the thing that really threw us for a loop was the herd of cattle on the state highway right outside of town.
I’m still kicking myself for not taking a picture.
The image is as fresh to me now as it was in June of 1978. Maybe that’s why Jane, the protagonist of the Tipperary County mystery series, along with her uncle and mother encounter a herd of cattle lounging on the the highway in the opening chapter of See Jane Run!
While writing the scene, I did my best to paint a word picture of what Jane saw and felt in that moment.
Not all of Jane’s emotions matched mine, but some of them did.
Not all of Jane’s adventures happened to me, but some of them did.
Not many of Jane’s fellow citizens were people I knew, but a few of them–all long dead– are.
However, Jane’s culture shock is the same as mine was. So is her growing appreciation for the unique place she moved to right out of college. Through Jane, I want to share with readers the culture and heart of the remote corner of the world where I once lived and still love.
With Jane’s help, I hope you’ll be able to picture it, too.
