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Wild Krumpos

Year

1985

30 entries

  1. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Do You Know How This City Got Its Name?

    My father had a routine. Not a routine he would have admitted to having. Not a performance. Not anything polished or rehearsed in the formal sense. Just a few jokes, stored and ready, each attached to a particular town. They…

  2. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Elementary school hallways have their own ecosystem — the speed-walkers, the

    Elementary school hallways have their own ecosystem — the speed-walkers, the slow drifters, the loud ones orbiting attention, the quiet ones avoiding it. It was my first exposure to hierarchy. Not adult hierarchy — kid hierarchy, which can be even…

  3. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    The Farmstead Rooms We Only Heated

    Our house was a patchwork of eras: stone basement, hand-hewn beams, odd little rooms built onto other rooms as if each generation had added a secret without telling the next. In winter, whole sections were cut off with blankets or…

  4. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    One winter morning, I woke before my parents for the first time and the house

    One winter morning, I woke before my parents for the first time and the house felt strange — cold, quiet, unguarded. The stove hadn’t been fed yet. The floorboards were freezing. I remember walking slowly, as if the house could…

  5. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Fishing meant time with the men who shaped me — my dad, and the family friend

    Fishing meant time with the men who shaped me — my dad, and the family friend who became a kind of uncle. They were quiet men, practical men, men who knew things about the world that I took as gospel.…

  6. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Frozen Pizza Thursdays

    I didn’t know we were poor. Not at first. Not when my parents worked nights, mom waitressing, dad cooking, both of them slipping in and out of the house like ghosts putting in long shifts at the edge of the…

  7. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    There’s a moment in childhood when the world shifts into categories — not rich

    There’s a moment in childhood when the world shifts into categories — not rich and poor, but “like mine” and “not like mine.” For me, it was stepping into the homes near the golf course. The ranch houses had carpets…

  8. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    The Rooms We Didn't Heat

    Old houses have ghosts — not the supernatural kind, but the emotional kind. Ours had rooms we barely entered in winter because they swallowed warmth faster than we could generate it. But some rooms we avoided year-round for different reasons:…

  9. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    We didn’t have much, but we had Saturday mornings.

    We didn’t have much, but we had Saturday mornings. Cartoons. Cereal. Pajamas until noon. The sense that the world paused for a few hours and let kids exist without expectation. The TV glow in a dim living room felt like…

  10. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    It’s strange how you can remember a certainty without remembering the moment

    It’s strange how you can remember a certainty without remembering the moment it broke. For me, it was in the middle of a conversation I wasn’t meant to hear. Two adults — arguing quietly in the kitchen, but not quietly…

  11. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    I remember the church basement better than the sanctuary. The sanctuary was

    I remember the church basement better than the sanctuary. The sanctuary was performative — polished wood, hymns, sermon voice. But the basement was where truth lived. Coffee in styrofoam cups. Cookies on beige plastic trays. Folding metal chairs aligned like…

  12. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    The deer skull I found behind the barn stayed with me for years. I hid it in

    The deer skull I found behind the barn stayed with me for years. I hid it in the loft of the shed like a secret altar. I didn’t think of it as morbid. I thought of it as mysterious. Beautiful.…

  13. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    The Man Who Didn't Like Music

    Once I asked my father what kind of music he listened to. I expected an answer. Everyone had music, I thought. Everyone had songs they loved, records they returned to, singers who belonged to them somehow. Even if the answer…

  14. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    The Silent Curriculum

    There were things the farm taught without explanation. No one sat you down and said, this is what country life requires. The lessons arrived through chores, accidents, deaths, and the strange adult certainty that some hard thing had to be…

  15. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    I always drew. I couldn’t help it. But somewhere around middle school, I sensed

    I always drew. I couldn’t help it. But somewhere around middle school, I sensed that drawing wasn’t neutral in my world — it was indulgent. Suspicious. Potentially dangerous. Art was fine as decoration, but dangerous as vocation. Dangerous as passion.…

  16. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Shame doesn’t descend fully formed. It creeps in like a cold front, subtle

    Shame doesn’t descend fully formed. It creeps in like a cold front, subtle at first — a comment, a smirk, a correction too sharp for its context. For me, early shame came from small moments: • being told I spoke…

  17. Tuesday, January 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Work wasn’t just labor.

    Work wasn’t just labor. Work was absence. My mom worked nights. My dad worked long hours. My grandparents filled the gaps. The house often felt like a relay race where I was the baton. I didn’t resent it. But I…

  18. Wednesday, May 29, 1985

    Wednesday, May 29, 1985

    Lots of time has gone by since I wrote in my journal. Donny's 10 years old and Helen is 8 years old. They're really getting big. Keith is coach for their baseball team. (Degroot's Construction). Galen is the assistant coach.…

  19. Saturday, June 1, 1985

    Saturday, June 1, 1985

    Today was a beautiful day in the 70's. Donny and Helen had to go to church this morning to practice for a play, "Daniel, Darius and the Lion". This afternoon Les and Cathy came out and I went with them…

  20. Saturday, June 22, 1985

    Saturday, June 22, 1985

    Time sure goes fast. Donny is getting so tall and independent — guess that's how it should be. Helen is still so sensitive. In some ways I wish I could keep em little forever, but that's not what the Lord…

  21. Monday, July 1, 1985 · Don Krumpos

    Talked Us Free

    My father believed in long drives. Not the modern kind, broken by motels and careful pacing, but marathon drives measured in thermoses. Twelve hours. Sometimes fifteen. He did almost all of it himself, hands steady on the wheel, one elbow…

  22. Tuesday, July 2, 1985

    Tuesday, July 2, 1985

    We went to Powette and had a lot of fun. Had to come back a little early because Helen got a urinary tract infection. She's on medicine and we're praying that will take care of it. We had a single…

  23. Wednesday, July 3, 1985

    Wednesday, July 3, 1985

    Today was really warm. Had to go to renew my driver's license. Jena and Becky stayed over gain tonight. Keith's last night on 10-6. He doesn't like that shift much at all. TodayI was so very tired, can't figure out…

  24. Saturday, July 6, 1985 · Keith Krumpos

    Saturday, July 6, 1985

    Betty quit work yesterday being her last day. She is worried about our making the extra cost of sending the kids to Christian school. No need to worry, if sending our kids to Christian school is in God's will, the…

  25. Sunday, July 14, 1985

    Sunday, July 14, 1985

    Helen's birthday celebration was today. Great Grandma and Grandpa Coppersmith, Grandma Krumpos, Grandpa Schmidt and Jenny, Uncle Ken, Aunt Cathy, Kim and Carrie, Uncle Bob and Aunt Kim and Ronnie were all here. She got a beautiful Cabbage Patch outfit,…

  26. Monday, July 15, 1985

    Monday, July 15, 1985

    The weather was beautiful today. Debbie and I went out to lunch with Irene Gronseth today and had a nice time. Blossom looks like she'll have her baby very soon. Keith's working 2-10 this week. The Schaut kids were over…

  27. Monday, August 5, 1985

    Monday, August 5, 1985

    Blossom had a little bull calf. Helen's classmate Jodi LaViolette died in a car accident. Carole Planert also died, of a heart attack. We just never know when we're going to die. Jodi died July 19.

  28. Wednesday, August 21, 1985

    Wednesday, August 21, 1985

    Grandpa Lau died last Sunday, August 18. The funeral was today. Carole Planert died a few weeks ago. They both died of heart trouble. The kids are looking forward to Christian school. It starts in one week.

  29. Monday, August 26, 1985

    Monday, August 26, 1985

    It's been so cloudy and gloomy the last few days. Sure hope the sun comes out before too long or my tomatoes will never ripen. Donny and Helen stayed by Ken and Cathy's last Friday night. They enjoyed that a…

  30. Monday, December 30, 1985

    Monday, December 30, 1985

    Christmas was different this year. Donny had the flu and strep throat. Keith, Helen and Henry went to Grandma's and I stayed home with Donny and wrapped presents. Christmas day I took Donny to the emergency room for an examination…