Being a child in the sixties and becoming a teen-ager a year after the Summer of Love and the year before Woodstock, I straddled two decades of great music with a foot in each. As kids, we danced to Elvis records in Debbie Harvey’s basement, which was way cooler than dancing to Bing Crosby in… Continue reading Child of Rock and Roll
Category: memoir
Mornings Are for Blogging
(re-run) When you’re mostly retired, like I am, you find that you think best in the morning. I’ve written and published 29 children’s books, and each one was born in the a.m. (not after midnight). At night I am pretty worthless. I can usually read until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Then it’s Snoozeville after that,… Continue reading Mornings Are for Blogging
It’s a Jungle Out There
(re-run) I saw a coyote yesterday during my strength and training class at the senior center. There are so many people in the drop-in class that I have to stand right in front of the glass doors, with a view of the hills filled with wild turkeys, birds, and now Wiley Coyote. My back hurts… Continue reading It’s a Jungle Out There
The Moon Landing and a Funeral
(re-run) The day we landed on the moon (July 20th, 1969), my parents took the family to a picnic/fishing spot at the Des Moines reservoir. I was going into high school in the fall, so it was a dorky thing to do on a Sunday, but hey? I couldn’t drive yet, and the food was… Continue reading The Moon Landing and a Funeral
Piglet in a Box
(re-run) Karin was working, cutting her stepsister’s hair at the salon her mom owned. Her cell phone vibrated. She never took calls during work. All of her friends and family knew that. It vibrated again, a second call from the same number. She picked up. It was her ex boyfriend, Rob. Rob was two ex-boyfriends… Continue reading Piglet in a Box
The Bad Housekeeper and the House Guests
After being gone for four days, I swept the kitchen floor this morning to get the dog hairs. As I swept, I thought of this incident three decades ago. My husband’s work friend from San Diego (we were in Northern CA) came to visit with his wife and two sons. That made for four little… Continue reading The Bad Housekeeper and the House Guests
The Grass is Always Greener
(re-run) I had a meeting tonight with two girlfriends in solid relationships. One is married, the other is living with her guy. My relationship is with two roommates who fight a lot over squeaky toys and over who gets to go out the door first. They are roommates of the furry kind. So imagine my… Continue reading The Grass is Always Greener
It’s a Small World
(re-run) Today was a meet-up hike, my third time with Remi as our fearless leader. It was sunny with little to no mud (no rain) and lots of cows. About twenty of us, plus four small dogs, walked five miles in two and a half hours. The great part is that the meet-up hikers go… Continue reading It’s a Small World
Letting Go
(re-run) My cars sit out every summer. There’s no way they can go into the garage. Fires are burning north of here and have been for weeks. The Bay Area air is smoky. I look at the blue plastic tubs of flammable clothing and think, “It would take days for all of this to burn.”… Continue reading Letting Go
Peace Corps Fail
(re-run) It was in the spring of my first year of teaching when the call came. I was at Greenwood Elementary in Greenwood, Nebraska. I had applied to the Peace Corps the year before. They had just seen my application. They wanted to fly me to Chicago for an interview that weekend. They gave me… Continue reading Peace Corps Fail
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 