Jeffrey Rasley's Blog

Not to be overly dramatic, but the "Big Ed" story came to me like Proust's madeleine experience. The whole story filled my mind after seeing some kids wrestling around at my local YMCA. Ala Proust, there were gaps in my memory of what happened one day at my grade school in 1965, so imagination was used to create this work of auto-fiction. Back then, the culture war fought out at my small-town Midwestern grade school was whether the Beatles were cooler than Elvis. But when a new kid from LA transferred to our school, a different battle ensued.
The Day Big Ed Came to Parkside School

The book is the fictional memoir of an 18-year-old hitchhiking across the country in 1972. But it was inspired by the humorous, bizarre, and scary experiences I had hitchhiking from Goshen, Indiana to Key West and then to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, after dropping out of college for a term. On the road, Jack meets gypsies, tramps, and thieves, Good Samaritans, and Jesus in a Ferrari. He is accosted by sexual predators and fanatic "religious" cultists and given shelter by anti-war and civil rights activists, hippies, and military veterans living by a "pay it forward" ethic. Jack even encounters, as I did, two candidates campaigning to be the nominee of the Democratic Party for the US Presidency, George Wallace and Shirley Chisholm (who kissed me on the cheek).

The book tells a “coming of age” story through the voices of a naive young man and an older and wiser one. In the youth’s quest for adventure and independence he rediscovers the importance of family, friends, and community. The protagonist also comes to understand, as I did, that learning through experience and formal academic-education are both worthy quests.

A Hitchhiker’s Big Adventure: On the road from Indiana to Key West and New Orleans for Mardi Gras 1972
The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPVR4TLJ

It was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you will check it out.

Farmland and Middletown were the destinations for our "wander Indiana to small towns" yesterday. Although similar in some ways, there was a stark contrast between how well the 2 towns are doing. They are only about 20 miles apart in east-central Indiana near Muncie. Middletown's population is 2,253 and Farmland's 1,270. they have both been losing population since 1980 - undoubtedly, victims of the collapse of Midwest industries creating the "rust belt'. But despite that, Farmland has a thriving little downtown and has many buildings on the National Historic Register. The 19th Century architecture is of multiple styles and is perfectly preserved. There are floral troughs with "bicycle art" on every block.
Middletown's downtown is dumpy and depressed looking, although, it does have a nearby well-paved trail by Honey Creek and a large municipal park. Many people were in downtown Farmland on Saturday afternoon and The Chocolate Moose restaurant was packed with late lunch diners. (The severs were all wearing tie-dyed Ts and were very efficient and pleasant, but the cook was very slow. The sandwiches were good, but not great.) Middletown had one large pizza restaurant, which was open, but didn't look like it had any customers. There was one derelict looking-guy sitting on the steps of a closed shop.
Once again, it seems like the difference between these 2 towns must be the community leaders of Farmland had a vision and made a commitment to maintain a lively community. I can only speculate that there isn't that kind of leadership in Middletown.
Photos at https://www.facebook.com/jrasley/

Our "wander Indiana" trip today was a visit to Attica and Williamsport. We thought the highlight would be seeing the 60 ft Williamsport falls (highest in Indiana), but, because of a lack of rain, the waterfall was not even a trickle. But we had a delightful time in Attica. We were lucky to have Michael as our server at Robie's Steak House. He turned us on to a self-guided walking tour of the town, which boomed in 1847 with the completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal. Like most canal towns, growth largely ceased, when railroads and highways rendered canals obsolete. But Attica did not bust, and it has a well-preserved downtown with a lot of public art and historic homes near Ravine Park. The statue of a boy and his dog is perfect, as is the New England-style Church. Population is around 3,500. Paul Dresser was supposedly inspired to write "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" on the riverbank by Attica.
Williamsport is just across the Wabash River from Attica and is the county seat of Warren County with a population of only 2,000. Williamsport was platted by William Harrison in1828, and he operated a ferry crossing there for several years. Williamsport and Attica both have nicely preserved and operating Carnegie Libraries. The Warren County Courthouse is small but is topped with an interesting-looking dome. The Presbyterian Church has a remarkably tall steeple. We walked the round-trip 3 miles along the trail below the falls, which was a beautiful hike, because the air was crisp and the fall colors have begun to appear in the dense wood. Just down the road from the falls was another trail along a marshy creek out to the river and just down river from the Paul Dresser Bridge.
To see photos: https://www.facebook.com/profile/7919...

Continuing a review of podcast interviews and guest blogs I did back in 2012, once again, I discovered several of the podcasters and bloggers that hosted me have "gone off the air." The blog I wrote for Novel Spaces in July 2012 is still up at https://novelspaces.blogspot.com/sear...
It is a blog about memoir writing based on the course I taught at the Indiana Writers Center. The key point I make in the blog and course was this:
"Essential to making a memoir interesting and worthy of publication is to have a central theme that carries the narrative forward. Without a thematic narrative, we are back to mere observation or a random collection of insights without a guiding light. The narrative must include factual details to make it interesting. Without interesting, quirky or astonishing factual details, a personal essay is boring. A point made in the abstract is likely to be forgotten as soon as the reading device is turned off."
Another topic I covered in the blog and course, that was always interesting to novice memoir writers, is:
"Finally, the memoirist should have a fine tuned sense of personal ethics. The last point I cover when teaching a class about memoir writing is to consider carefully whether to identify or to change the identity of individuals, organizations or companies referred to in the piece. Friendships can be damaged and libel/defamation suits can be filed. It is easy enough to disguise an identity with a fake name and to attribute some intentionally misleading characteristics to protect the privacy or reputation of a person or organization. Consider the consequences and choose wisely."
The blog ends with a link to what was then my recently published "Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, and Football", but the link is to a no longer available 1st edition of the book. Darn!
[The 2d ed. is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7OTYQU

[book:Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football|33986057]
Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football

Continuing my journey back in time to the blogs and podcasts which hosted me over a decade ago, I discovered that two of the oldest ones, "Readers Views" and "Travelanthropist", no longer exist. Their content has disappeared into digital ether. I don't remember "doing" either of them and can only guess at what we might have covered in the interviews. Their links will be deleted from my website.
The next oldest with a working link is a guest-blog-interview, dated May 8, 2012, on the Kris Wampler Blog. The most recent post on the blog is dated September 30, 2022, so I'm not sure whether Kris is still doing interviews and blogging. I have a vague recollection of talking with Kris about "fleeing the law." Kris's bio on the blog-site states that, "Kris Wampler is a licensed North Carolina attorney who practiced family law for nearly seven years before leaving practice to pursue a freelance writing career."
The blog interview is about what was my recently published "Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football." However, the original 2012 version of the book was "unpublished" and replaced by a 2017 revised edition. The blog opens with this description of the book:
...In 1969, amidst the culture of sex, drugs, rock and roll, the draft lottery, the anti-war movement and radical feminism, the University of Chicago resurrected its football team after it had been dead for 30 years. A small town Hoosier kid who just wanted to get the best education possible joins the team to build his resume. His teammates are jocks, pot smokers and nerdy intellectuals. Along with his teammates he is swept into the tumult of the late 1960s. He falls in love with a radical feminist who demonstrates against the return of football to Chicago. He rooms with a secular Jewish kid taking ballet whose father has begun manufacturing something called a computer chip.
An assistant coach rides Jack for not fully committing to the team. His favorite professor chides him to concentrate on his studies. What sustains Jack through the bewildering cultural milieu, and the pressure of balancing sports and studies, is the tolerant understanding of his head coach, reconciliation with his girlfriend, and the friendship of his teammates....
It was very gracious of Kris to give my book a plug on his blog. I hope he has prospered in his writing endeavors and his life journey has been a good one during the last eleven years.
Blog link: https://kriswampler.com/2012/05/08/je...
Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Midwa...

I have been a guest on over 150 radio/podcast shows and blogs over the last decade+. I usually post a link to the recorded shows and blogs on my website, and then, never go back to listen to or read them. Stuck inside on a cold, crappy day, I decided to check out the "oldest" links.
I clicked on the link for a 2010 podcast called "Your Life Matters". A "domain name for sale" has replaced the podcast site. Well, that's kind of depressing.
The next 3 oldest links were 2011 guest blogs - one on Patheos and 2 on Around the World Blog - focused to some extent on my first book, Bringing Progress to Paradise (now out of print).
But t he 2d Around the World Blog at http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.co...
was interesting, because it anticipated my little ebook, Light in the Mountains, which was written as a supplement to "Bringing Progress". https://www.amazon.com/Mountains-Elec...
It tells the story of my night out on a mountain ridge with Ganesh and Buddhi Rai. They told me about their dream for bringing some "modern things", like electricity and running water, to their village. And so the Basa Village Foundation was dreamed into being.

From the book: “The entire USA has and continues to benefit from the illegal and inhumane treatment of the people of the Native Nations. If America is going to continue to claim it is a moral leader, the “city on a hill” and beacon to the rest of the world, we have to finally and fully face up to our genocidal history by paying off the debt and cleansing that historical sin.”
This book makes the case that all non-Native Americans and the US government have inherited an obligation to our fellow Americans, whose ancestors were forced off their traditional lands onto reservations. The population of North American indigenous people was decimated by a 90 percent reduction and the land they controlled was reduced from 100 percent to 2 percent, as a result of the Anglo-European invasion and US conquest. All non-Native Americans are the beneficiaries of this genocidal subjugation of Native tribes, because the USA would not be what it is today, and non-Native citizens would not have what they have, were it not for the decimation of the Native population and land theft by our national ancestors.
The book relates the brutal history of enforcement of the 1830 Indian Removal Act and transitions into an argument for culturally sensitive development of Native communities. The American Rescue Act for Native Tribes is a start, but it does not go far enough in promoting sustainable and thriving economies within Native communities.
The book is available at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...

Promo video of the book on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/embed/K3gZf1X...

A poignant story of love and idealism spanning the social upheaval of the 1960s and the 2020 Pandemic
https://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Repu...

Hitchhiking across the country, when I was 19, instilled an optimism in me about the USA, which I still retain. This article reflects back on the polarization within the US under Nixon and then Trump, and why there are reasons to be optimistic right now.
Published by the Indiana Writers Center literary journal, Flying Island, at
http://www.flyingislandjournal.org/se...