Recollections & Reflections

In “Recollections & Reflections”, Dennis Herrell turns his attention to essays. In his mind, an essay is a way of reading and recording how intelligent, provocative minds explore all the different aspects of life. The history of essays is long and notable. Aldous Huxley, one of Dennis Herrell’s favorite authors, described the essay as “One damned thing after another", and “a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything." Dennis writes about a sea-going father, having a friend, being a grandpa, exercising, an evening at the opera, plus other interesting persons, places, and experiences. Usually, Dennis devotes his time and energy to poetry. To him, it is a form and format that is a perfect fit for the way his mind works. However, this time, he had some ideas that seemed more suited for the regular paragraph style of essays, and not the conciseness and structure of poetry. The transition was not easy for him, but he likes how this collection of essays turned out. Hopefully, his readers will enjoy and relate to these reflections and remembrances in his essays.

Dennis Herrell was born in St, Clair Shores, Michigan in 1937. Not in a hospital but in the upstairs bedroom of his grandparents, Roy and Alice Smith. In the winter as a boy, Dennis rode the snowy back roads in a toboggan towed by his uncle’s truck, and in a clattering, wind-driven ice boat on Lake St. Claire. Those were the days: watching the pigeons explode out of the coop in the evening, along with being chased by a mean old rooster in the back yard. Dennis grew up to be a teacher, a sporting goods wholesaler, a gift/card wholesaler, and antique dealer. He is
now retired. His writing life began in college, and continued off and on during his working years. Dennis lives in Texas— a big, diverse land of desert, mountains, hills and valleys, meadows, prairies, rivers, lakes, and salt water bays and beaches. He calls the almost sub-tropical city of Houston his home. Dennis loves his 1920’s bungalow in the old historical Heights district of Houston, and finds that it is the perfect setting for putting his ideas into the written word.