Rocky Mountain Low

(re-run) He was the good-looking cousin of my best friend. Tall, tan, and bearded, with a killer smile, it was love at first sight. Marcus had moved from Minnesota to Colorado to be near his sister. He asked if I wanted to come out and go backpacking with him. I said yes but that my… Continue reading Rocky Mountain Low

Dating and other Things Over Fifty

(re-run) Sherry didn’t get her first colonoscopy when she turned fifty. She put it off. Did she have one done at 51?   No, she did not. 52?   No, she did not. Finally, Sherry scheduled it to be done at 53.  She was so nervous when she went in that the nurses asked Joe, a regular… Continue reading Dating and other Things Over Fifty

Waitresses Make the Best Tippers

(re-run) After moving to Omaha and teaching for a couple of years across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I grew tired of driving a car that smelled like a mildewed basement. My poor Chevy Monza had suffered through a Nebraska flood back at the farmhouse, and the car stank. I couldn’t afford a… Continue reading Waitresses Make the Best Tippers

The Shame of my Generation

(re-run) I am ashamed of some of my friends. Let’s just say we are in the senior citizen range, from fifty-five and up. Way up. Some of them are in their eighties. They are making fun of youth marching in the streets for climate change. They are attacking Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started… Continue reading The Shame of my Generation

The Story of my Picker

When I had a shop, it attracted lots of individuals who wanted to sell me antiques. Some of them had good stuff. Others had junk. Many wanted too much for their inherited mementos. One old guy brought me cracked and chipped tea cups and got mad when I wouldn’t buy them at any price. A… Continue reading The Story of my Picker

The Frazzled, Harried Shopping Day with No Money

(re-run) Yesterday I was busy, squared.  I planned my whole day around running down to Dublin before 4:30 to get some free samples from my sister’s doctor. Sis is in the doughnut hole for meds with Medicare, which means they are expensive. On the way down to Pleasanton, I got a call from one of… Continue reading The Frazzled, Harried Shopping Day with No Money

Bomb Shelter Blues

Our house on 69th Street in Urbandale, Iowa, had a big bump in the backyard. It’s where my grandfather built a fall-out shelter that connected to our basement. It was during the Cold War, and thoughts of atomic bombs being dropped on us was enough to motivate him to save his daughter and five of… Continue reading Bomb Shelter Blues

The Danger of Family Secrets

To this day my mother says, “It was a different time. That’s what families did in those days.” She is talking about family secrets. Mine had a whole bunch of them. My dead Uncle David, with his farm painting on the living room wall of my grandparents’ house, was a mystery to me.  He’d died… Continue reading The Danger of Family Secrets

My Fake-Coffee Half Hour

(re-run) It’s funny how a person’s perception of what is good changes with the circumstances. I used to look forward to my can of Diet Coke every day until I reached my mid-forties. Then the stuff was too hard on my stomach, and I gave it up. I used to look forward to my cup… Continue reading My Fake-Coffee Half Hour

Betting on a Jersey Girl

(re-run) He was working in Pittsburgh, auditing Gulf Oil for Price Water House. One of his married buddies approached the crowd at the water cooler and asked a guy, John, if he wanted a blind date with his wife’s friend from dental school. “Wait!” Arthur said. “You already have a girlfriend, John. How about me?… Continue reading Betting on a Jersey Girl