Today I am thankful because I remembered a Calvin Trillin reading on Prairie Home Companion about growing up in Kansas City. He talked about chiggers. Chiggers! One of those "Eureka" moments when I realized that yes, it's true, there are no chiggers in New Jersey. Say what you want about Jersey, but at least there are no chiggers here. What a perplexing pest, the mightiest of the mites, the invisible chigger! Got me good at Mrs. Hunt's in 1988 in Springfield, Missouri when I was weeding her garden for $5 an hour to pay the bills in college. Growing up in Southern Illinois, chiggers wreaked havoc on me so many times, but no more. Not in the past 16 years. I had forgotten all about them until Trillin's essay. I experienced instant gratitude! Even when I joined the Marines, I got sent to Southern California for boot camp. They called us "Hollywood Marines," as opposed to whatever they called the guys who went to Paris Island (PI), South Carolina for boot...
by Chris Rainey. This is a blog of my journaling, essays, opinion pieces, religious satire, and creative writing.