They met at a frat party at Iowa State during their sophomore year. He was an Aggie. She was a Zeta. He had a manly hooked nose. She had one cute dimple. After the mixer, he called and asked her on a date. He wore a sport coat. She borrowed a dress. He kept asking… Continue reading Country Boy, City Girl
Category: memoir
First Boss, Worst Boss
Aside from the old-man boss I had at my ten-day job at the Iowa State Fair, who took one look at my giraffe legs in my short culotte jumper I’d made in sewing class and demanded that I bend over to see if my butt would show (it didn’t), George was the worst boss ever.… Continue reading First Boss, Worst Boss
Black Lights and Beatles
You know that one song that whenever you hear it, it takes you back to a time and place when you were doing something so memorable, while it was playing in the background, that it is burned into your brain for eternity? We’d seen the guys at the Iowa State Fair the summer before, where… Continue reading Black Lights and Beatles
Prince Not So Charming
He was dressed as a prince in his puffy sleeved blouse and velvet jacket. I was dressed as a 1930’s nurse from Samuel Merritt Nursing School in Oakland. Admittedly it was a weird Halloween costume, but the woman at the estate sale had practically given it to me after I bought $200 worth of antiques… Continue reading Prince Not So Charming
Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
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 new… Continue reading Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
While student teaching in Venezuela, we learned how to have fun with not much money. One of the American teachers had stolen a couple of striped beach towels from an upscale hotel, and she had been sneaking into the hotel pool for years. “Just carry the towel and act like you belong,” Linda said. Christy… Continue reading Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
Rocky Mountain Low
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 girlfriend… Continue reading Rocky Mountain Low
Wrestlers and Basketball Dudes
The summer after high school graduation Debi, Donna, and I climbed into Debi’s blue Ford Pinto and cruised over to the next town of Johnston. Why? New guys, of course, not the same old, same old Urbandale guys. Debi was petite, Donna a little taller, and I was a giraffe. We made an odd trio… Continue reading Wrestlers and Basketball Dudes
One Flood, Two Fishermen
Kristy and I met at ISU. We had been around the world together, at least to Venezuela where we did our student teaching, plus Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. Now we were roommates in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. As the story goes, I applied for the third grade teaching job, the principal interviewed me, showed… Continue reading One Flood, Two Fishermen
Easy Rider
My neighbor, Joan, would roll her parents’ car out of the garage when we were in 9th grade so we could go driving in the middle of the night during her slumber parties. We’d fall into fits of hysterical laughter when Mr. Bast, the milkman, would go by in his milk truck. But we didn’t… Continue reading Easy Rider
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 