A Possible Family Heirloom: The Advent Calendar My Mother Made
On that trip that my mother made to our home in late November or early December 1984, she brought my son a gift she had made herself—an Advent calendar in the shape of a wreath. For those who don’t know, an Advent calendar helps children count the days until Christmas to build their anticipation (as […]
Where Did the Emigrants Sleep as They Traveled the Oregon Trail?
I’ve been asked where the emigrants in wagon trains slept as they traveled the Oregon Trail. In old Western movies, families are often depicted as sleeping in their wagons, and single men as pillowed on their saddles around a campfire. In reality, where did they sleep? Many sleeping arrangements were used. Some pioneers did sleep […]
Tenth Anniversary Celebration in the Virgin Islands
Today, November 26, 2018, is our 41st wedding anniversary. I’ve been on a “forty years ago” kick recently, and so I started wondering about our first wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, I have no memory of the day nor of any celebration of our first year of marriage. November 26, 1978, was a Sunday—the Sunday of Thanksgiving […]
My First “Adult” Thanksgiving
Today, November 21, 2018, is Stuffing Day. So it is appropriate to write about Thanksgiving dinners. Forty years ago, on Thanksgiving Day 1978, my husband and I had the first Thanksgiving meal in which we had a part in the planning and preparation. I think we brought a couple of bottles of wine to the […]
Forty Years Ago: Interviewing in Kansas City
In November 1978, my husband and I spent Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week interviewing for attorney positions in Kansas City. We were third-year law students, and we had decided to settle in either Kansas City or San Diego. Why those two cities? My husband was from Missouri, and we both liked San Diego. I […]
On Stop Signs and Safety in 1969
I’ve written before about my youngest brother learning his alphabet—how we sent him on reconnoitering missions around the card table to find where the Airplane letters were. That was the summer of 1969, shortly before he turned two. By the time little brother’s second birthday rolled around in November 1969, he was beginning to put […]
Confession: I Let My Mother Potty-Train My Son
I mentioned in a post several years ago that my mother had potty-trained my son while I took a business trip. It was in November or December 1984, but I always associate the event with Thanksgiving. As I recall, this is how it came to be: We had moved into our new home in October […]
Twenty Tips from Another Writing Conference
Last Friday and Saturday, November 2-3, 2018, I attended the Johnson County Library’s writing conference. We in the Kansas City area are very lucky to have excellent library systems in our area, and the Johnson County Library system is one of them. This two-day conference was free to anyone, whether a library card holder or […]
Learning to Play Chess
I’ve written before about our family’s competitiveness in playing games (see here and here). One of the early memories I have of living in the new home my parents built in 1963 is of my father teaching my brother and me how to play chess. We moved into the house in October 1963, so our […]
Psychological Thrillers: Truly Haunting Books (HE SAID/SHE SAID and THE WITCH ELM)
I wrote at the beginning of the month that I hadn’t read many haunting books this year, but I seem to have been able to find several to review. This last “haunting books” post for this year covers two psychological thrillers—the brand new The Witch Elm, by Tana French, and last year’s He Said/She Said, […]