(re-run) When I was sixteen, I saved my babysitting money and went downtown to Cottage Grove Avenue in Des Moines, where there was a head shop filled with incense, hanging beads, roach clips, black light posters and tie dye. Although I wasn’t a pothead (I didn’t smoke cigarettes either), I enjoyed the ambience of the… Continue reading Pennies from Heaven
Category: humor
Bicycles, Pedicures, and the Carpool Lane
(re-run) When your daughter comes to town for the week, your routine gets a shake-up. Instead of going out to find your fun, you find that it centers around your offspring, at least two of them. There are lunches, dinners, and more lunches. There are shopping trips and tubs of important papers to sort, that… Continue reading Bicycles, Pedicures, and the Carpool Lane
Moon Over Lafayette
Trudy worked at an engineering firm. Joe was the visiting copy machine repair man, or as her office mates called him, the Xerox guy. One day Trudy had to make copies. Joe was at the machine, repairing away. “Oh,” she said. “No copies for me!” “Hey there,” Joe said. “We should catch dinner sometime.” “Okay.”… Continue reading Moon Over Lafayette
A Double Double
(re-run) They met online. Veronica liked his blue eyes, just like her late husband’s. He liked her lean frame and told her so. She enjoyed the morning email exchanges for a couple of weeks. He harassed her for eating at Chick-fil-A since the business had just come out as anti-gay. She was a Southern girl… Continue reading A Double Double
The Blond-tourage
(re-run) Every woman over fifty gets the same advice from her hairdresser — to lighten up her hair. As our skin fades and our looks do, too, we need brighter lipstick, sparkly-er clothing and blonder locks to stay looking as young as we can. My apologies to women of color; this may not apply to… Continue reading The Blond-tourage
Chuck’s Drive-in Movie Date
(re-run) Chuck drove his powder blue Bonneville Pontiac to pick up his new girlfriend for their drive-in movie date during his senior year of high school. He had tricked out the interior of the car with his two taxidermy quail on a bed of shag carpeting in the car’s back window. When he drove his… Continue reading Chuck’s Drive-in Movie Date
Drive-in Movie Blues
(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
Mac and Cheese, a Spicy Story
(re-run) After nearly a week of no heat in my house, I finally feel warm enough to write a story, a spicy one, at that. This morning I made my usual run (with wet hair) to the grocery store for the Sunday Chronicle. But alas, there were none. I popped into the CVS next door… Continue reading Mac and Cheese, a Spicy Story
Must Be a Small Town
(re-run) I went to my favorite beach town for 24 hours to get away from it all. The weather was foggy, the weeds in my yard were thick, and my two dogs were fighting. But three thrift stores in Carmel had their end-of-the-month half-off sales yesterday, so who cared about the weather, the weeds and… Continue reading Must Be a Small Town
Afternoon Delight: Read All About It
(The Worst Wait for a Date) If you were in eighth grade and you had a weekly afternoon paper route delivering the Detroit News in Saginaw, Michigan, and you rode your red Schwinn bicycle with the basket to do your route and then rode it again on collection day, what would your fantasy be? If… Continue reading Afternoon Delight: Read All About It
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 