NICHOLAS BERNHARD

• SHORT STORIES
• OPINION PIECES
• TALES OF THE NORTHERN COAL FIELD
• SUPPORT ME ON PATREON

SHORT STORIES

• Then A Skeleton Popped Out
• Sweet Relief
• The Trash Man

OPINION PIECES

• From My Corner of Hangman’s Hollow: Memories of the Dark Horse and Other Haunts

  • The Dark Horse is the bar you find on dead planets at the far edge of star systems. Its cousins are Mos Eisley on Tatooine, and Hangman’s Hollow, last stop of the Galaxy Express.

  • Published on 2024-04-10 in Yellow Scene Magazine
  • Live reading by DJ Greg on Greg o’clock show, 2024-04-11, Radio 1190 KVCU.
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• So Much For Good Guys With Guns

  • The murders of seven mob members in Chicago in 1929, the original Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, seems quaint now, and few remember it. Mass shootings are so common that days of the year are not specific enough to commemorate them.

  • Published on 2024-02-15 in Yellow Scene Magazine
• Wishful Thinking at the Waffle House

  • They say eating at a Waffle House is trench warfare. I told a friend that, to the contrary, every time I’ve gone to Waffle House at 2 AM I’ve been treated with nothing but respect.

    My friend smirked. That’s because you’re the most polite person to ever visit a Waffle House at 2 AM.

  • Published on 2024-01-09 in Yellow Scene Magazine
• When Heroes Fade
  • I can’t tell you why Scott Adams changed, but I know I miss the man I once met.
  • Published on 2023-07-06 in Yellow Scene Magazine
• Dear Graduate
  • Here’s the advice I wish someone had given me when I was your age.
  • Published on 2023-06-06 in the Colorado Sun
• In the name of liberty, we’re turning our schools into dismal fortresses
  • Published on 2023-01-04 in the Colorado Sun
• The Vaccine Mandate vs. Tyranny of the Ignorant
  • Published on 2021-12-02 in Yellow Scene Magazine
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• Feeling Vandalized As Well
  • Published on 2021-10-12 in the Boulder Daily Camera
  • Secularism means being firmly opposed to desecration, which was the obvious intention of the Sacred Heart vandals.
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• Mary Miller Should Be Admired, Not Denounced
  • Published on 2021-02-11 in the Colorado Hometown Weekly
  • Lafayette’s understanding of its history will not be enhanced by demeaning one of its most admirable figures.
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• In Times Like These, Polarizaton Can Bring Clarity
  • Published on 2021-01-22 in the Colorado Sun
  • Four years ago, I would have said America is a nation rooted in democracy and reason. Four years of argument and division have shown me otherwise.
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• Video Games Don’t Cause Violence
  • Published on 2014-01-17 in the Boulder Daily Camera
  • Throughout mankind’s history, each new means of expression has been castigated as the cause of evil in the world.
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TALES OF THE NORTHERN COAL FIELD

• The Spanish Flu Epidemic
  • In Lafayette’s coal mining days, diseases rushed through towns like a flash flood. Extended families lived in small cottages, using chamber pots and outhouses instead of indoor sewer systems. It was then, in the autumn of 1918, that one of the deadliest epidemics in human history, the Spanish Influenza, came to Lafayette.
• Adolph Waneka
  • A history of immigration in the Northern Coal Field, including Lafayette, Erie and Louisville, is as old as the cities themselves.
• The Monarch Mine Disaster
  • January marks the anniversary of the Monarch Mine explosion, the worst accident in local mining history. The Monarch Mine was located two miles south of Louisville, and was one of the longest-running mines in the region.
• Tools of the Trade
  • By an act of Congress, anyone who went west, built a house on some land, and farmed the land, could own that land. Homesteading carried the risks of starvation, disease, and financial ruin, but the opportunity for a new start, in a new land, drove many onward.
• The Snowstorm of 1913
  • In Colorado, it remains the standard for judging other snowstorms. If it happened today, the results would be catastrophic. Over four days in December, 1913, Lafayette received 48 inches of snow.
• The Labor Day Rail Disaster
  • Yes, my friends, over one hundred years ago, there was an extensive and popular commuter rail line between Boulder and Denver. It operated from 1908 to 1926, and was even electrically-powered.
• Waneka Lake: Lafayette’s Hidden Jewel
  • The lake was closed to the public until the 1980’s. With its beautiful views of the Indian Peaks Wilderness, one former councilman at the time called it a hidden jewel. Jogging uninterrupted around the lake was thwarted because fences [had to be] hopped and weeds and bushes negotiated.
• The Lafayette Power Plant
  • A man climbs onto the plant roof and looks west. He does not wait long before he sees a light in the distance, sitting atop the Distel Farm windmill. The location is between Emma and Chester streets, the time is 1893.
• Coal Country Gridiron
  • The high school football team was a point of pride in Lafayette as it faced the hardships of the Great Depression. Chuck Waneka, who played on the championship team, recalled practicing football with work shoes held together by belts, later making his own shoes.
• When Mrs. Nixon Came To Town
  • Longmont had been visited by President Teddy Roosevelt, and Boulder by Eisenhower, but now First Lady Pat Nixon had come to Lafayette.