The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

I've written in the past a few times about my friend Steve Fiffer back in Chicago (okay, Evanston...).  Steve is a wonderful writer, with many non-fiction books to his credit -- including most recently collaborating on the memoir of Civil Rights legend C.T. Vivian. His wife Sharon is also an accomplished writer of the "Jane Wheel" mystery series.  And his mother was a medical technician in my dad's doctor office for years.

A few years ago, Steve and Sharon come up with the idea for a website that they called Storied Stuff, which I've mentioned here.  They call it "Show-and-Tell for grownups."  Basically, they get people to write in brief stories about treasured items them have, which they've kept for decades. The site came about during the Pandemic, as a way to draw people close together -- but it's continued on since with great success, now with over 500 stories, many of them deeply touching, some of them fascinating.  As Sharon has said about the project, "Every bit of stuff we hang on to or are drawn to, tells a story. The universal, after all, is found in the specific.”

Well, it turns out that Steve and Sharon have just published the first volume of what they expect to be a three-volume anthology. 
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I mention this for two reasons.  The first and most important is because their effort is such a good one.  The other, because they include one of the two short pieces I wrote for the site.  

It's a story I wrote about baseball cards, though not the general idea of collecting them, but rather deals with two very special cards that I still have to this day which stand out in baseball history for a particular reason.  It's a story about an event that half a century later is still galling to Cubs fans, but no doubt gives the inveterate Chris Dunn great pleasure -- what is considered the worst trade in the history of baseball, known in baseball lore as "Brock-for-Broglio."  And I have cards for the players involved from before the trade,  This is that tale.

(For what it's worth, here's a link to my other Storied Stuff piece that's online.  It deals with the great Bob & Ray, and actually and surprisingly overlaps with Glencoe.  But back to the book --)

The other day, Steve and Sharon were guests on WGN Morning News in Chicago to talk about the book, so they can do a far better job than I can and also go into detail of some of the especially-interesting stories.  All the better, WGN gave them five minutes of air time. 

I'm unable to embed the segment, but they sent along a video taken of the screen, which I've embedded below.  The video is small and isn't crisp, and the audio is tinny, but it all comes through fine.  If you want to see high-quality, full-screen video of the conversation from the WGN website, though, you can click here.

​And if you are interested in checking out the book, this is the link to it.