The Short and the Tall: Frances and Nelle

Nelle Johnson and Frances Clayton were lifelong friends. They both lived in Carlisle, Indiana. Carlisle is south of Terre Haute on Route 41.

Carlisle is such a little place that if you were driving past in the 1960's or 1970's and blinked while you would miss the exit.

Nelle and Frances led a caravan of five women on a cross-country camping trip in the mid-1960's. My mother was one of the women in the group, along with her sister, my Aunt Lucy, and Lucy's daughter, Carol Jean.

Learn more about Nell and Frances in Moth at the Window.

Indiana Peaches

In August the melons are ripe in Indiana. Wonderful watermelon, musk-melon, cantaloupe and peaches like those delicious ones I ate as a kid.

I don't know what created the heavenly flavors. Maybe it was the Wabash River watershed or the lands that were reclaimed from the swamps that made the soil so fertile and harvest so lush and succulent.

I do know that Indiana folks love melons and peaches. It is something that reaches deep into their soul. I too have had it touch me. I am drawn to vine-ripened fruit that I know grew on the nearby lands. I can taste the difference between the local peaches and those that came from South America.

This photo is of my step-grandmother, Frances, and my brother and I. You can read more about Frances in Moth at the Window.