A series of award-winning stories about our region's traditions, institutions, and people, past and present. Rock Island Lines is written and read by Roald Tweet, Professor Emeritus of English at Augustana College.
The stories in these three-minute modules are rooted in a specific place; a "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River." It's the logical site for a storyteller. It is from the rich heritage of our region that Tweet spins his histories, biographies, and "stretchers."
Roald has spent much of his life travelling up and down the river, with forays overland, east and west, talking to the people, reading their journals, and enjoying the humor and history of America's heartland. His observations about life around Rock Island strike responsive chords across the region. It's a viewpoint that will enrich and enliven your day.
Listen below or subscribe on iTunes or RSS.
Sponsored by
Quad City Bank & Trust
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When that anonymous philosopher claimed that women's place was in the home, communities around Rock Island were…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Some promotions take place only after death. For many years, a number of large oval photographs of 19th century…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When you were little, do you remember your parents telling you to look both ways when crossing the street, and then do…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Most cities in the United States feel slightly un-American if they can't boast at least one outlaw or crook of some…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It's there, everywhere. Our skyscrapers rest on it, it lies under the wheels of our cars from New York to San…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Most of us first learn about Chicago from a poem in tenth grade. "Hog Butcher for the World," the poem shouts, "Tool…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.One of the first things we learn about America in grade school is that we are a melting pot. "Here," a French observer…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Last January the seed catalogs arrived as usual amid the cold winds and snows. I was lost in a spectacular imaginary…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Americans have always been fond stories reminding us of "how the West was won." A young boy from LeClaire, Iowa, just…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It is hard to believe that this November, after forty-nine years of teaching English literature at Augustana College in…