Thomas Fenske

I often wonder what happened to that one. It was a short story I dashed off as extra credit for an American History class when I was a junior in High School. It was a quick first person narrative of a Civil War soldier caught up in the third day's battle at Gettysburg/Cemetery Ridge and ended with him punching over the short wall at the top of the ridge and being captured. My history teacher liked it a lot.
It's funny because although I later majored in history, I never focused too much on the Civil War. After I moved to North Carolina, I got much more involved in private research on the war. The story was written long before the movie Gettysburg and long before I ever visited the battlefield but details I remember from it seemed quite accurate. I may have to rewrite it one day if I can't ever find it.

I remember a book of Indian stories, mostly from the Southwest, like Navaho or Hopi. I don't remember the title. I read it cover to cover a number of times. Little morality stories I guess, each emphasizing some issue or conflict that had to be resolved. I don't remember a lot of details but remember reading it a lot when I was just starting to read. I loved to read. My mother told me she got called to a teacher conference once because I was always in the wrong place when we were doing group reading in class. Apparently I didn't have patience and would read ahead faster than whoever was reading out loud. When it was my turn, I'd just continue where I was. Okay, attention problems, maybe. Reading? No problem there.