flynnfamilystorytellers

  \ Abandoned Carrie Keiser The old house has sat in this field for so many years now and seen countless seasons come and go, the sun beating down and weathering the boards. One day a woman climbs out of a truck and treks across the field, kneels down and clicks away, moving a little to the left and the to the right, walking around changing the angle of the camera trying to capture the different facets of the old tired building. A gentle breeze blows through the open windows and doors, caressing the old boards and waking the spirit of the home. There’s a slight creek and if you listen carefully you can hear the old house waking up calling out to the photographer. She pauses and looks around as if she can hear the stories flowing out the door onto the porch to rush across the prairie toward her. Like a flash out of the corner of her eye, something just out of sight.   The woman sits down, leans back against the old house and closes her eyes for just a moment, trying to catch t...

  A Cool Breeze Blew off the Irish Sea and….. Carrie Keiser A cool breeze blew off the Irish Sea and Bridget closed her eyes, she was transported back in time to a day three years ago when she stood in this very spot on Ballinesker Beach. Bridget stood, eyes closed, breathing in the salty air and reliving the moment. In her mind, she could hear the weaves crashing and the children playing nearby, feel the warm sun counteracting the early fall wind. A smile slowly spread across her face and she sank down into the warm sand.  Bridget was back in that one perfect moment with her family. The moment when all the world was right and it seemed that nothing would ever change. She had come here today to center herself, draw those memories to the forefront of her mind and ponder on how quickly things can change.   It started out as an ordinary day at the beach the last before the return to school and work and before the cool of fall/winter set in, one last vacation. The trip t...

  Colleen Holmquist 5 verbs: Draw Focus  Project Brim Secure  I secured the lock on the French doors and drew the drapes closed, then hesitated a moment before sinking into the rocking chair. Eyes closed, brain brimming with emotions; I struggled to focus on the incidents of the last fortnight. Images of people and places I scarcely recognized projected onto my consciousness. What a whirlwind!  Cookies…it’s been a long time. I’ll make cookies. “Focus!” Yes, the first day was frigid, misty and gloomy. A mug brimming with hot cocoa and cookies will fix that! “Focus!,” Who were all those costumed people and why did they prance through the brume? Cocoa, cookies and another log on the fire will secure a warm hearth. “FOCUS!” Brilliant sunlight in an azure sky. Translucent figures hovering, gliding, floating over a silty estuary—bearing to the sea? Cookies, cocoa, firelight projecting calidity…almost there. Focus…focus. The view from the cathedra: ra...

  1-29-23 A Time Your Were Lost Carrie Keiser Sitting in front of my computer trying to think of a time I was lost…… I ask for assistance from the peanut gallery (Troy) and get “What about lost in thought?”  My reply, “Oh its empty in there, How can I be lost?” I’m in trouble with this topic! Seriously, if I enter my mind in search of lost I do get lost….. Why haven’t you finished this story?  What is going on with that story?  You should find a better job… maybe one job?  Wonder how Em is doing? Yesterday she had frozen pant legs. Is Scott enjoying the mission? It was a pretty good day with Axl and Fae yesterday. Wonder how Zoey’s weekend with her dad went?  I need to work on my hippo for Jody.  It looks a little wonky…. Get back on task, the story about being lost….. Was that my phone?  Who could be texting?  The relief society presidency group text (ignore), one from Ryanne… Oh fun she texting in German. 2 hours later we have had a...

Bad Haircuts, Flynn Family Story Slingers 15 January 2023 by Cary Holmquist The entire time I was growing up in rural north-central Montana, the only haircuts I ever received were from my cowboy-turned-farmer Grandpa Vance.  I never heard how he became a hair cutter, but I suppose it had to do with being a cowboy on the ranges of central Montana, where he grew up.  They wore real cowboy hats most of the time and leather wool and fur caps in the sub-zero, endless wind winters and so their hair was easiest to take care of if it was short—and so the cowboys accomplished it themselves with whatever passed as scissors. Grandpa Vance’s right hand had been mangled in a hay-chopping mill before he was 30 years old and when I came to know him 30 years later, he had figured out how to hold a long comb between the hook-like fingers of his right hand while he wielded buzzing electric hair clippers in his left hand to deliver the haircuts to his grandsons.  He had been practic...

  Traditions of Christmas By: Carrie Keiser Growing up it seemed like it was a tradition to put the tree up on Christmas Eve and then leave it up to till the new year. I understand now that it was partly because we waited until the Christmas tree lots closed and were giving away the last, usually ‘Charlie Brown’ trees, because we couldn’t really afford to pay full price for a tree. I think they were all beautiful and I kinda love a good ‘Charlie Brown’ tree. Also, as a kid, it was kind of a tradition for Ryanne and I to stay awake and try to “catch” Santa. When we moved to Ephrata it seems that the tree went up sooner and that the real tree was replaced by a fake one.  Always, on Christmas Eve, we gathered to listen to dad read the Christmas story from the Bible, that is my favorite memory of Christmas. With my family we were given a 24 days til Christmas book by Nana (Dorothy Herrin) when Cody was little and Shantel was not yet born. We started that next year and read a ...

  Christmas Caroling By:  Carrie Keiser   The only time I remember going caroling as a child was one snowy December evening when we loaded into the car and forged out into the wintery weather to regale the fine people of western Montana with our vocal prowess.  I can’t recall how old I was but I know Megan was quite young maybe three, so possibly I was 10. I’m not 100% sure why we decided to go caroling, we are not much of singers, but we were spreading our wings and getting into the Christmas spirit and sharing the message of hope by way of carols to the unsuspecting residents of the Frenchtown area of western Montana.  I do not remember how many people we subjected to our singing, I do remember that we came upon a car that was off the side of the slippery road and nearly in the Frenchtown Pond.  Dad and Brandon (possible Martin) got out to help the unfortunate driver, an older lady who it turns out had been drinking at a party and should not have been dri...