An interview with Suzanne "Mumsie" Buckley

I haven't posted lately because I've been working on an interview for The Raven, a new quarterly being launched in Joshua Tree on a date yet to be decided.

Suzanne "Mumsie" Buckley, 81, was the subject of my interview. I spent the morning with her a couple of weeks ago at her house in Joshua Tree, and we had a wonderful time.

Suzanne "Mumsie" Buckley and her hippie van

What I didn't write about was how much the two of us had in common. We were both born in Idaho. I was born in Moscow, where she worked for the University of Idaho. She was born in Burley, in Southern Idaho. That's just 20 miles north of Oakley, where my family first landed in Idaho.

Both our families started out with the LDS church - the Mormons. Suzanne's family was from Denmark. Mine was from Sweden.

Suzanne and I both lived and worked in Ketchum, Idaho.

I worked at the Traveleze Trailer Factory my first summer out of high school, and Suzanne has a Traveleze Trailer on her property. (Now it's starting to sound like that embarrassing scene in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.")

And last but not least, we both have an abiding love and respect for the creosote tree.

Look for my interview of Suzanne in the inaugural issue of  The Raven, and if you'd like to throw a little cash their way to help The Raven get off the ground, you can do so at GoFundMe.