Author Archives: Leslie Schultz

Postcard: August 5, 2019

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On our travels to Iowa last week, Tim and I spotted on our trusty DeLorme atlas, what appeared to be a small town north of Lanesboro. With a name like Bucksnort–!!!!—how could we not seek it out.

This is what we found.

No town. No filling station. No cluster of houses. No pavement. No cell phone coverage. No traffic light, stop sign, or signage, even, except for the one below. Simply a picnic shelter (no garbage cans) at the edge of a pristine fishing spot called Trout Run Creek, a few graveled parking places, eleven damp concrete steps leading to a shallow muddy bank with the embellishment of a railing on one side fashioned from metal pipe painted glossy black, and (to our surprise), a dozen people besides us milling about but not (apparently) fishing.

As to the history of the place, we can only imagine.

Note to Readers: I am sending this week’s postcard early as a precaution.

For the past few weeks, my beloved Dell computer is showing signs of impending demise. Aaaaah! say I. This is the computer upon which I saw all three of my poetry collections to press.

Tim is wisely advising moving to an Apple laptop. I am reluctant to move even to another Dell, but do feel I can learn a new set of conventions, especially as Julia — our resident Apple expert — has offered to tutor me. So, just in case there is an unplanned break in missives from me in the near future, fear not! As soon as I learn the ropes, I will be back to my usual communications including weekly postcards. For now, fingers crossed! LESLIE

Love of Locks & Locks of Love

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I have always had an abundance of hair. Here’s a photograph of me when I was just one day old.

And here is another, just six weeks later:

While I have flirted with shorter styles now and again, usually my hair has been shoulder-length or positively Victorian.

When I was in high school, though, I had a classmate who struggled not just with adolescence (like the rest of us) but with cancer. She had lost her hair and wore a wig of acrylic fibers. Though she never said so, I know that it made her feel self-conscious.

Decades later, something clicked when I learned about the charity Locks of Love. My neighbors’ granddaughter, a young teenager, donated her beautiful long blond hair to help another child. Established in 1997, the Locks of Love purpose reads this way: Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children free of charge.

As I researched more, I learned that even those with (ahem!) a few (or more) strands of silver can donate hair, since the more senior hair can be sold to other wig-makers and the proceeds go to support Locks of Love’s work. Knowing that, I talked about it with my kind stylist, Lindsay, the owner and manager of Buzz Salon here in Northfield, who agreed to make the donation on my behalf.

So, ready for a change, I set the appointment and set about enjoying the last weeks of having longish hair. Below is a pictorial summary of the past few days.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, ON VACATION….

YESTERDAY….

AND TODAY, SHAKING HANDS WITH THE NEW ‘DO!