mother’s confession

Three Bus Passengers Got Off for Pie at June’s Cafe and Never Got Back On

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Small roadside diner at dusk with a bus parked out front on an empty highway, small town crime story

This small town crime story was never in any newspaper. It’s about a diner on a bus route in western Nebraska, three passengers who got off for pie and never got back on, and the man our town blamed for it. My mother waitressed at that diner for eleven years. She told me the rest … Read more

Every Porch in Our Town Lights a Pumpkin for a Man Who Never Came Home

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Row of glowing jack-o'-lanterns on porches along a dark Vermont street, small town halloween story

Every small town Halloween story I ever heard as a kid was about our own town, and every one of them was about Walter Pell. In Halden, Vermont, every porch lights a jack-o’-lantern on October 31st so Walter can find his way home. My family was the only one that didn’t, and the town made … Read more