(re-run) Linda was a freshman that summer and and would start high school in the fall. She was doing summer stock at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. The play was Bye Bye Birdie, and she was playing the part of a show girl. Jeff, one of the good-looking stage hands, drove a blue ’66… Continue reading Drive-in Movie Blues
Month: May 2025
Wiener Dog Versus Rat
(re-run) Long ago, when I had three school-aged children off at their respective schools, I sat at my desk writing during the quiet of the day, when I heard the Dachshund barking. He was somewhere in our spacious half-acre back yard. I ignored it at first, but when the barking didn’t subside, I decided I’d… Continue reading Wiener Dog Versus Rat
Easy Rider
(re-run) – Today we shopped at a different Trader Joe’s and the clerk told me, when I said she looked familiar, that she had a Midwestern face, and I said I did, too, and she asked where I was from and I said Iowa, and she said, Me, too, and she’s from Adel, and I’m… Continue reading Easy Rider
Lost, Then Found
My cousin died at a young age. She was an artist and had given everyone in the family a piece of art she did, a preying mantis. An insect, and a creepy one at that. She gave it to me in 1979. Somehow, somewhere, I ditched the bug. Then she died, and I regretted giving… Continue reading Lost, Then Found
The Day I Found my Voice
(re-run) When you’re in the dog house, you are in trouble. You’ve done something bad. As a child, I was never in the dog house because we didn’t have one. We didn’t even have a dog. My mother had her own strain of weird expressions that she said to us kids on a regular basis,… Continue reading The Day I Found my Voice
One Night, Seventeen Babies
When our daughter came out, covered in dark hair just like her dad, the nurse slapped an i.d. tag on her tiny little foot. For some reason I reached over to read it.
The Spiritual Post
(re-run) A friend lost his younger sister to cancer last week. I lost my older sister in December to a myriad of health issues. Grieving is a process. It doesn’t end all at once. It comes and goes. At least I’m not crying anymore. When a hummingbird gets in my face or flies close to… Continue reading The Spiritual Post
Daisy’s New Perch
(re-run) My suburban house is cozy but dumb. The small bedrooms are on the front of the house, with the family room tucked behind the garage. There are no good windows for Daisy to see out of, no couch to jump upon to watch the street. Until the day I cleaned my office. I ended… Continue reading Daisy’s New Perch
Cleaning for Company and a Bleach Bottle
(re-run) Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching. I still had to clean the sewing room for my daughter, who is coming for a short visit from the East Coast. I also emptied out my office so that I could get a twin mattress in there when all three of my kids, plus one husband, are here… Continue reading Cleaning for Company and a Bleach Bottle
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 