BELLE FOURCHE—An afternoon of local authors sharing their work that reflects the Belle Fourche spirit was delivered to a full house at the Tri-State Museum on March 15.
The literary event, Raber, Reading and Writing opened with author David Raber reading three of the 33 stories from his latest book, Life and Laughter in Belle Fourche. He kept the audience entertained with the stories he told. His tales are all based on true stories and many in the audience responded with robust yes, nods and laughter when he would stop and ask if people remembered those he spoke about—including the story of The Legendary Eli Magpie and Philip Rosales and the Ski Jump.
Raber graduated from Belle Fourche in 1961 and decided to write about life growing up in the area. “I was a Ford dealer and when I retired I was kind of bored and I thought I had the talent to write, so I decided to write,” he explained. “And I write about Belle Fourche because it was my favorite subject!”
After graduation Raber went off to college at USD in Vermillion, SD and then the Vietnam War and later opened a Ford dealership in Oregon. But his heart remained in the Belle Fourche area. “Oh, I just love Belle Fourche! You know, I grew up here and I love the stories, I actually live in Spearfish, but this is where I’m going to stay, and I traveled all the world but here I am in Belle Fourche!”
He is currently planning his third book which will focus on true stories from life during his Vietnam War experiences. “I was in Vietnam, but that was kind of gory, but I’ll write about some of the other things, but true, I like writing about true things,” said Raber.
Following Raber eight talented authors from The Belle Fourche Writers group—whose work is featured in Life’s Landscapes—took the stage to read one of their poems. First up was Kathy Bjornestad reading her poem “This Old Place.” Margaret Bolte took the stage next reading her “Recipe for Life” poem.
Lynda Edwards was called to the stage twice to share her poems “Night Watchman” and “My South Dakota Home” with the audience. She explained that her husband reminded her to talk directly into the microphone so people could hear her, but then thanked him for being a great support to her.
Joan Gerkin explained that her poem was a found poem, a poem created using words or phrases that have been selected and rearranged from another text. Her poem is called “If You’re Not from Belle Fourche.”
Angela Hastings explained that she enjoys writing poetry because while she may not have enough time to write a novel, finding time to scribble down a couple lines for a poem is much easier. She read her poem, “Birthright.”
Holly Moseley took to the stage to entertain the audience with her poem called Presence.
Bruce Roseland read his poem “66 Miles to Reva (leaving Newell).” And up last was Jean Helmer, who introduced each author and then came back at the end to finished with her poem “Dakota-Bred Guilt.”
Tri-State Museum Director Kristi Thielen took the stage to discuss the importance of written materials. “I am here to make a plea, not just to you, but if you would spread to anybody that you know, museums are entities that are interested in gathering historical pieces for the sake of research, she said. “We have a certain number of things already in our collection, but we need more. I am here to ask you please, if you know people that have letters, cards, diaries, journals, anything that is of interest that you can pass on to the museum, we will take good care of them and use them for the future of people who might want to come and do historical research, we would appreciate it!”
The museum is looking for items from around the 1970s and on. “We hit a midpoint in the century and we don’t have very many artifacts,” explained Thielen.
The museum is working hard on a classroom that will contain a library with a computer to use for historical research and they want to be a place that people will think of first when wanting to do that kind of research.
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