12.16.2000

graduation

Being a total nerd that I am, yes, I did smuggle my camera into the graduation ceremony. This is a photo of Josh Funk, who I met my freshman year and had the opportunity to work with in my college journalism career. This day was a long day coming.

10.22.2000

gma

My Grandma Dorothea Fox sits in her wheelchair while I visit her in the nursing home in Oxford, Ohio, as my Aunt Karen Wates reads some of the newspaper clippings I brought to share.

08.26.2000

082600 powwow1
A boy takes shelter from the scorching August sun underneath spectator seating in full pow wow wear.

082600 powwow2
A young mother talks to her baby while dancing in the circle at the Annual Omaha Nation Pow Wow in northeastern Nebraska. The Omaha claim to sponsor the longest continuously running pow wow in the nation, with a history going back to 1804.

08.22.2000

082200 flag

The American flag blows gently in the late summer nighttime breeze while I was visiting a friend’s home and saw this while walking up to his door.

Summer Reflections

Going to the park. Autumn. The water. Running. Taking a nap on the couch with all the windows open on a breezy day. Frank Sinatra. Driving down the interstate at dusk. Dusk. The idea of a meal I’ll never create. The idea of a place that doesn’t exist. Creating a place that doesn’t exist yet. Sleeping naked. Foggy days. Small towns on the east coast. Taking a bath on a cool day with the windows open. Nice people. Sweaters. The smell of coffee on a cool morning. I just like cool weather. “Local Hero.” Boats. Good Italian food in small Italian restaurants.

Midnight stroll downtown. Seeing reflections of the past and future. Stop to talk to the latest homeless guy (maybe woman) and toss a dollar or two. Rusty fall afternoon, backpack full of the store’s cheapest beer, hitting the frisbee golf course. Marigolds in bloom, trees putting on the fight to keep awake, or to sleep. Summer’s giving up the fight. Indigo Girls signing about the human experience, playing from their souls. Window down, burning leaves, and no care in the world. The light falling on my lovers cheek, exposing imperfections and character. Spending all day in bed. Conversation of the heart. Lying on the hood of my car watching meteor showers, misquotes nipping at my skin. The love of life. Hits me so hard.

08.19.2000

sioux falls cruising
My last assignment during my summer internship at the Arugs Leader . . . teen cruisers.

Radio turned loud with punk rock and the top down in her convertable, Celina Allbee, 19, and Michele Smith, 19, both from Watertown, cruise the drag in downtown Sioux Falls Friday night.

mitchell crusing
Teenagers cruise Main Street in Mitchell, S.D., Friday night passing the town’s notable Corn Palace.

08.10.2000

081000 ameteur_baseball

Vermillion Red Soxs player Jay Merrigan slides back to first when trying to steal second as Dell Rapids Mudcats first baseman Gregg Hilmoe catches the ball Thursday night at Mitchell’s Cadwell Park. He returned to the base safe.

08.10.2000

081000 accident

Two people were injured in a two-vehicle collison at 11th Street and Dakota Avenue in Sioux Falls, S.D., Fred Stewart, 86, was driving his 1988 Buick Park Avenue east on 11th Street when he failed to stop for a red light and hit a 1996 Plymouth Voyager driven by Gerald Potter, police said. Potter’s vehicle rolled and came to rest on its roof at 2:49 p.m. Both people were taken to Avera McKennan Hospital. Stewart was cited for failing to stop for a red light.