10 Nebraskaland • October 2026
Your Nebraska
A change once again gripped the landscape, and a
rippling ocean of grass returned. Things were quiet past
Thedford with the only signs of settlement being barbed
wire strung along the gravel roads, one of which we
pulled of f on, so I could photograph a wind pump.
I was hesitant to delay our arrival any further, but my
grandpa said, "I've learned that when you see something
you like, you should stop. You might never see it again."
When one asks what attracted him to my grandma, he
says he saw her painting a picket fence in a bikini.
From Owen Oppenheimer's unpublished essay, "Love and Death on the Prairie"
JUSTIN HAAG
