I walk down the rows of hanging baskets suspended in the greenhouse at the garden shop and I can’t help but think of my mom. For many years, right before Mother’s Day, I would always browse the hanging baskets looking for just the right one to give to my mom. I would try to envision… Continue reading Planting Memories
Author: Chris G Thelen
I’ve been a writer all my life. Growing up on a farm, I dreamed up all kinds of stories as I spent hours in the fields and the barn. When I graduated from high school, I studied journalism in college and began my career as a writer in advertising. Eventually I made my way into corporate communications before retiring a few years ago. Now I am writing for myself—dabbling in blogging and working on self-publishing that novel that’s been in my head for quite a few years. Through it all, I have thoroughly enjoyed the creative process and using words to create stories.
Finding Fresh Dirt in My Life
For a moment I could feel the hope of spring as I compressed the soil. The warmth of spring would soon germinate new life, new hope.
We Now Conclude our Broadcast Day
Sometimes I get a bit nostalgic for that simpler time when broadcast media would sign off for the day; a time when the phone stayed home and didn’t go with you everywhere.
Action Movie Star
If this was a movie, this is the part where I would calmly leap from the tractor a second before it explodes in a ball of fire. I would then roll on the ground and stand up without ever losing my mirrored sunglasses. But this wasn’t a movie, this was reality.
When A Lot is Not Alot
I’ve been in the marketing and public relation business for a long time. I’ve seen some pretty effective product campaigns, but none more effective from a cost and impact perspective than the one I saw in sixth grade. This particular campaign was the genius of a determined English teacher who sought to rid the world… Continue reading When A Lot is Not Alot
The Chance of a Lifetime
It’s not often we get to disarm someone in authority with one sentence. I had that opportunity early in my career and now have more appreciation for that rare moment.
Measuring Age in Internet Years
There was a time when age was measured with such great events as the moon landing, the Civil War or World War II. My dad talked about living through the Great Depression as a kid and my grandma recalled using horses for transportation and farming when she was a girl. But in today's technological world,… Continue reading Measuring Age in Internet Years
The Wonder of Winter Fashion Trends
Maybe it was just a style that eventually went out of fashion or just pure practicality, but for some reason when I was in grade school all the kids wore bread wrappers on their feet. Not as footwear, but over our socks before we put our feet into our winter boots. I remember the floor… Continue reading The Wonder of Winter Fashion Trends
When Rudolph Challenged the Wild Wild West
It was like one of those great standoffs in those old Western movies. The dusty Main Street with tumble weeds blowing across and a whirlwind whipping up a cloud of dust. Spurs clink as two tough gunslingers take their positions opposite each other; steely eyes staring each other down as they position their hand over… Continue reading When Rudolph Challenged the Wild Wild West
How Someone Helped Me Get My First Job at Their Competitor
In the course of a busy work day, it can be hard to stop and think that there is a person at the other end of a request. Taking a few minutes to respond could change someone’s life.
The Next Half Century 