Charlie Brown and Me, Fifty Years Ago and Today
I’ve been fixated recently on what happened in 1964—fifty years ago—as 2014 winds to an end. Perhaps I should have focused on these events throughout the year, but I’ve only noticed occasionally when the media has reported on anniversaries of major happenings from 1964. I didn’t research 1964 events until this week. What started my […]
Hand-Me-Downs: The Little Blue Coat
As the oldest child, I didn’t have to wear many hand-me-downs. Occasionally, I wore clothes from the daughter of my mother’s friend. When I reached junior high, I sometimes had to wear something of my mother’s. I hated that, because styles meant for a thirty-something woman in the late 1960s seemed frumpy on a thirteen […]
Why Do I Ask Questions At the End of My Posts?
The short answer to why usually I ask questions at the end of my posts is that I read somewhere that it was a good thing for bloggers to do to get readers to engage. The long answer is a little more complicated. It is true that I’ve read that bloggers should ask thought-provoking questions […]
Judgment in Families and Beyond
It apparently caused quite a stir in my parents’ high school when Catholic Mary began dating Protestant Tommy. Not only was he a Protestant, but he was a member of DeMolay, the Masonic organization for young men. Yet Mary wore his DeMolay pin proudly. Although my mother was a devout Catholic all her life, she […]
Worldwide Gold Rush to California Begins
My Gold Rush posts this year have traced the spread of the news, from the discovery of gold in January 1848 until the knowledge reached distant corners of the earth. Although Johann Sutter wanted to keep the discovery secret, he could not contain news of such import, as we have seen. “The United States is […]
A Broken Foot, Horseback Riding, and Christmas Woes . . . And Joys
Most years about this time I get frantic over Christmas preparations. This year is particularly bad, because I have a trip planned for a week in early December, so I am trying to get as much done as possible before I leave. But I’m not having much success. When I worked full-time, I took a […]
The Cousins and Rudolph
I wrote on Monday about my children and their cousins. The picture above is my favorite picture of the four of them, primarily because I know the story behind it. They were singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to the adults that were present. The youngest, my daughter, was nineteen months old, and didn’t know much […]
On Cousins, Connections, and the “Social” in Social Media
I envied my children as they were growing up—they were close with two of their cousins. They were close in age, and for their first few years of life they lived within a reasonable driving distance of their mutual grandparents. The four kids played together regularly, stair steps spanning six and a half years. My […]
Sculpting My Novel and My Life
My writing goal for the summer was to finish an edit of my second Oregon Trail book. I got it done just after Labor Day. Of course, that was not the end of the project. I know it needs another substantial edit. And probably another edit after that. And I’m working still on the first […]
Friends: Sometimes Mothers Know Best
When I arrived at Middlebury College, I knew no one. The college did a reasonably good job of throwing freshmen together on a variety of activities, but friendships must develop at their own pace and in their own time. The day we moved into the dorm, I was wearing a nice pants suit (double-knit polyester, […]