Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie: Birch Clump Village Reader, 3

By Joshua Seidl

Short fiction stories and art. Police finds Amos Crow's kayak days after he was last seen in the village, "Fishing Hole, Part 2." An odd sounding dessert, but tastes great. Bible thumper, Eino is thumped in "Bible and Brawn." Erik Fern packs it in with "A Goose in Deer Season." Find out who left the monastery and got married. The mystery behind Amos' assault continues from B. C. Village Reader, 1.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781300752905

Book preview

Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie: Birch Clump Village Reader, 3

Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie: Birch Clump Village Reader, 3

Joshua Seidl, SSP

Copyright 2013, Joshua Seidl

ISBN 978-1-300-75290-5

No portion of this book, text, art or photos may be reproduced by any means without expressed permission of the author and contributing artist.

Edited by Charles Browne

Photos and illustrations by Joshua Seidl. Some art and photo contributions as marked from Charles Browne and from Elaine Browne.

Dedication

In Memory of

Gibwanasi Namishkid

(A.k.a Fr. Jacob, csj)

Founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Congregation of St. James

1917- 2007

And

Deacon Widossema Chi Bai (A.k.a Job, Oblate member and co-founder)

1917-1978

The Congregation of St. James was founded at the outbreak of World War II as a Native American Order of Franciscan Friars. They follow the Third Order Regular rule of St. Francis with the Letter of St. James worked into their Constitutions. This is the earliest known Religious Order in the Church founded for and by Native American (Indians).

The author developed the Order for Hawk Dancer and its companion novel, Cloudburst. See www.HawkDancer.com.

To the attention of a few chosen Religious known to become anxious about "C.S.J.," please remember that novels are works of fiction. In other words, cool your heels.

Introduction and Acknowledgments

My thanks go to Uncle Charles Browne for his continued encouragement of these stories. Uncle Charlie edits and proofreads for me and he does a lot of research so I can get historical, cultural and technical information correct in these works of fiction. He shared some adventures that I worked into portions of some of these stories. He has generously permitted me to use some of his photos, photo-art and copies of his embroidery in these books.

This third installment of the Birch Clump Village Reader series includes a memorial section to his wife, my Aunt Elaine. We included a few pieces of her art near the center of this book. Auntie walked on in August 2012 and is now at rest in Christ.

The Birch Clump Village Reader series is a collection of my short stories and some poetry. The books include plenty of art and photos. Many are by me, though I include the works of other artists and photographers with their permission.

The bulk of the stories are set in the Northern Great Lakes Region. The quaint fictional village is set in Menominee County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Pristine forest surrounds the village settled on the shores of Green Bay off Lake Michigan’s north shore. Much of the writings thus far feature Baby Boomers in their younger years, 1950’s through the early 70s. This third book begins to migrate into the later 1970s and into the 80’s with an eye towards the 1990s.

The novels that began my North Country writing covers 1917-2010, Hawk Dancer and its companion, Cloudburst. Most of the characters in these BCV Readers are in the novels, or are friends, relatives, lovers, adversaries, neighbors of or otherwise are known to the regular characters from the novels.

Coming Up With Stories

Novels, by the very definition, are works of fiction. Most of my stories that made up my first two novels are historical fiction. My fictional characters react to real events, World War I and II, Korean and Vietnam wars and the Great American Civil Rights Movement. Events of AIM’s founding years, (American Indian Movement), had an effect and influence on many of the residents of Birch Clump Village.

The discovery of the Baby Boomer twins in Hawk Dancer, (continued in Cloudburst,) has some basis with a fellow seminarian in real life. He is an Ojibwe adopted out of the tribe. Multiple stories of Native American adoption and child abductions out of the tribal family units served to develop my fictional twins.

Other stories spin from what I hear in passing and from conversations. A fellow monk, having had a bad day, announced, I should have followed my mother’s advice. She wanted me to be a rock star.

I vowed to work that into a story someday.

Comical things overheard in passing strangers provoke totally new stories, or sense within a story unrelated to the original event. This book’s title, Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie, is one example, and the resultant recipe found in this book.

Stories evolved from my own drawings and photos. I once found snakes in the basin of an outhouse, thus a poem based on my imagination of how they might have gotten there. I also have a picture of me about to enter an outhouse; see Snakes in the Outhouse, included in

Fritha: Birch Clump Village Reader 2.

Most of us can recall the excitement we felt when a fight broke out on the playground or after school. Kids are passionate to see a fight. I certainly was. Just why that is, I am not sure.

The question of who can take who resulted in some good-natured wrestling matches. A brief sample of this sort of harmless, fun loving behavior with Jig and Erik is included A Goose in Deer Season, in this volume.

Immaturity makes kids feel invincible. They do not fully comprehend the consequences of impulsive behavior. I brought this this out in Bible and Brawn, with a fight that got out of hand.

Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie

derived from a funny story my Mom told me. A young father was joking with his children, Come on kids; hop in the car. We have a peanut butter and pickle pie waiting at home.

Mom laughed.

The man invited her to join them.

Mom joked back, You’re inviting me only because you think I don’t like peanut butter and pickle pie.

Later, I told Uncle Charlie about that and asked him if he could come up with a way to make peanut butter and pickle pie. He had a recipe for peanut butter pie, but not with pickles. He searched the internet and found many references for peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, but no pies.

He started out adding a third cup of chopped sweet pickles. The pie was good, but he worked at getting something different. Three or four pies later, he came up with the perfect Peanut Butter and Pickle Pie recipe, using chopped dill pickles.

Fishing Hole: Part 2

Mott’s interview

Background Notes From Part One:

Sgt. T. Douglas catches up with Jerome Mott in 1980. The purpose is to get a more detailed interview regarding the events surrounding Amos Crow and to learn what happened to him the day he went fishing in June of 1969.

Part one of the Fishing Hole ends as a cliffhanger in the book, Emerald Rising: Birch Clump Village Reader, 1, pages 87-108. In that short story installment, Amos had just graduated from high school. He became acquainted with Gret on the day of graduation, and they agreed to get in touch with each other after their respective family summer vacations.

Amos’ family stayed at his grand parents’ home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Amos took a kayak up river to a favorite fishing spot along the Birch Clump River not far from Ingalls, Michigan. He got out at the secluded spot and set out his fishing line. While he was daydreaming and fantasizing about his potential new girlfriend, two individual sneaked up behind him and announced they had a gun and for him not to make a move. They blindfolded him gagged him and tied his wrists behind his back. They robbed Amos was robbed of three dollars and his driver’s license.

They left him to fend for himself in those back woods. They tied him up so tight, that it was impossible for him to get loose. That is where the story left off.

Part Two’s Introduction

Amos’ empty kayak was found on the Mott family land four days after the mysterious case was reported in June 1969.