James C. Schaap
ContributorDr. Jim Schaap doesn’t know what on earth happens to his time these days, even though he should have plenty of it, retired as he is (from teaching literature and writing at Dordt College, Sioux Center, IA). If he’s not at a keyboard, most mornings he’s out on Siouxland’s country roads, running down stories that make him smile or leave him in awe. He is the author of several novels and a host of short stories and essays. His most recent publications include Up the Hill: Folk Tales from the Grave (stories), and Reading Mother Teresa (meditations). He lives with his wife Barbara in Alton, Iowa.
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Next time you’re in Kansas City, stop by the Negro Baseball League Museum, right there on 18th and Vine, a historic little neighborhood where once upon a time jumpin’ clubs up and down the street wrung out late-night blues like nowhere else. There’s a jazz museum right next door, too. Don’t know jazz all that well? A few hours in that interactive place, and you’ll come away knowing much more than you dreamed to know or hear.
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Sioux City born-and-reared, the Ghosts picked up games with only the best local teams, but never let what happened on the field get too demanding or serious.
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Civil War veteran Albert V. Cole settled in Nebraska after marrying. In his journal, it wasn't the war that he recalls, but the fear of his wife leaving their home for the hardness of a blizzard.
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When Francis La Flesche was a young boy, he wanted to hunt buffalo for his tribe. As a man, he preserved his people in a different way.
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Dr. La Flesche Picotte was nothing like the stereotypes that haunt the American imagination. She became the first native doctor and tended to all people in need over a 450 square mile service area.
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Though the future was uncertain, and the past was all too present, Rosalie La Flesche's love of her people and her home was clear.
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After surviving a storm, a ship bearing immigrants sinks in Lake Michigan.
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A steamboat time capsule reveals the lives of gold rushers from the 1860s.