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DOWNLOAD

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8.5" x 11"
54 pages

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If you would like a printed, spiral-bound copy ($25 incl shipping), please email your name and mailing address to [email protected]

TESEMINI:
A Short Spirit Lake Reader

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PREFACE
This chapbook gathers eight published texts by George Venn about growing up in Spirit Lake, Idaho where—in 1961—the brick high school (SLHS) was forever sacrificed to progress. As the last student body president of that pile of brick and rubble, our 16 final graduating classmates always grieved, remembered, and celebrated that place. Memorable stories of that old destroyed building would always come back—friends teachers, classmates, teammates, Associated inside and outside places were equally unforgettable—in study hall, parked cars, on school busses, bedside the lake, in the gym. Teachers were always indelible: Mr Butler, Miss Osborne, Mrs. Lemonidis, Mr. Roske, Mr. Simon, Mrs Dahl, and countless others. As of this writing—August 16, 2024—their entire intimate community story—replete with mystery and romance, love and death, success and failure—rests largely on the personal inscriptions and images in one document—the suberb 1961 Tesemini edited by Allen Olston, Sharon Salesky, and Nicki Reynolds. So, until someone steps forward to become the author, these eight published texts will, at least, point the way to possibilities for future writers and partially compensate for the loss of our beloved school.

—George Venn President emeritus
Spirit Lake High School, Class of 1961

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CONTENTS

• Singing the Silver Valley Cannonball
  memoir from Idaho Yesterdays (1999)
  
• Jay Mullen: A Hanford Veteran’s Story
  poem from West of Paradise (1999)
  
• Opening Day
  poem from West of Paradise (1999)
  
• Gyppo
  poem from Lichen Songs (2017)
  
• Builds Strong Bodies Twelve Ways
  fiction from Marking the Magic Circle (1987)
  
• Athol, Rathdrum, the Idaho Line
  poem from Off the Main Road (1978)
  
• A J Dickey Couldn’t Run the Ends
  poem from Talking River Review (1998)
  
• Winter Tales: Spirit Lake
  history/folklore from Idaho Yesterdays (2008)