(re-run) My parents didn’t know how to swim. When we went on vacation at Clear Lake, Iowa, and Dad wanted to take us out in a rented pontoon boat. My mom objected. Dad won in the end, and the five kids put on our life jackets. I think my mom did, too. I am sure… Continue reading Pontoon Boat Disaster
Category: Iowa
Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
(re-run) I was nine or ten when our mom took me and my younger siblings downtown to a place to get some free food for poor people. Our dad was out of work for six weeks. My mother was humiliated. We waited in line until it was our turn. As the worker handed Mom her… Continue reading Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
Frostbite Memories
Today the sun was shining, the ocean was royal blue and the wind was bitter cold. I had the dog on a choke chain since I couldn’t squeeze the prong collar back together (I’d taken it apart in the wrong place). I headed down my street past a tree- trimmer truck that has just pulled… Continue reading Frostbite Memories
Writing It Down
(re-run) Yesterday, as I drove up the freeway to BART, where I would meet two girlfriends and one of their daughters to go to the city to see Hamilton again, I was composing my blog post, out loud, in the slow lane. I was on a roll, phrasing each sentence to perfection as other drivers… Continue reading Writing It Down
Typical Tuesday
(re-run) Today’s entire front page is about the two mass shootings over the past three days, one in Southern California, and the other one fifty miles from my house. We can continue to believe that it won’t affect any of us, that mass shootings happen to other people. It’s getting to the point where we… Continue reading Typical Tuesday
Scariest Student Ever
(re-run) During my ten years of teaching public school, I had many a student that caused me grief. The 8th grader transfer student who called me a bitch in front of the whole class on his first day. The brilliant 7th grade boy who lit matches in the hallway and dropped them on… Continue reading Scariest Student Ever
Behind Closed Doors
(re-run) I read a memoir about a woman’s tough childhood, with violence, danger, and an abusive older brother. I recommended it to Facebook friends online. A friend said she didn’t like it because she didn’t think the book rang true. “The Mormon part or the survivalist part?” I asked her. “Neither.” She didn’t think anyone… Continue reading Behind Closed Doors
The Racist, the Ficus Tree, and my Garage Sale
(re-run) When I was six, the one black boy in my elementary school was in my class. His name was Teddy. This was white-white-white Iowa in the 60s. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Van Cura, got angry at the class one day for misbehaving and said, “Whoever doesn’t behave will have to play with Teddy… Continue reading The Racist, the Ficus Tree, and my Garage Sale
State Fair Memory
The Iowa State Fair is the biggest in the country, with 165 food items on a stick! and the butter cow. But the fair was expensive for a family of seven, plus Dad had had polio as a late teen and walked with a limp. The fairgrounds covered a lot of acreage, so we seldom… Continue reading State Fair Memory
My Free Farm Dog
(re-run) I saw three Aussie-mix puppies today. They are ten to twelve weeks old and gorgeous! I remember Pepper as a puppy just four years ago. I am too old to house-train another puppy. But they were so cute! I had a Brittany spaniel/Australian Blue Heeler mix puppy way back in the day. My future… Continue reading My Free Farm Dog
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 