Peter Feldstein
1984
Kiva Shogren
[The Oxford Project]

Inkjet print
Welcome Books
My mom says she got my name from a movie, but she can't remember which one. Kiva's a Hopi Indian name, but it's also the name of a crater on the moon.
 
I found Goldie one day in Colorado. I was driving on a bridge and she was trying to get across. I hollered at her and she jumped right in my car and gave me a big slobbering kiss.
 
I moved to Oxford when I was twenty-three, and lived above the hardware store with Goldie and two cats (Bear and Stormy). No one warmed up to me. I think they thought I was a little strange. I was always on display and I felt vulnerable. People spread rumors about me. I wouldn't say they opened their arms to welcome me.
 
Then I got a job at Blooming Prairie, a natural food distributor that's run as a collective. There were hippies, gay people, lesbians, all selling organic food. I'm still there.
 
I met my husband at a bar in Iowa City. He was Catholic and I started going to church. I got baptized, ?which was important to me. We had two children. But his routine was more important than mine, and he left after eight years. I was lonely, and one day I was walking my dog in town and I met Tim. He was working on his car. We got married and have another daughter.
 
Kiva Shogren
 
From The Oxford Project. Welcome Books. Photographs © 2008 Peter Feldstein.
Text © 2008 Stephen G. Bloom. www.theoxfordproject.com
 
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