Suprise Me

We'd had all the vaccines available at the time ... but this was the only time I refused a vaccine. Read More

Hair has power.  My father knew that, which is why he shaved us skull-tight once a week, leaving him with the controlling interest.  Yet he was bald, which didn’t make sense. Regardless, by third grade, the year I started hitting on women, he let us grow our hair out.  The power it gave me was … I… Read More

To play the “Gas Station Game,” you began by taking turns choosing different brands of gas, the way you might pick players on a pickup baseball or touch-football team. He would pick first—that was just the rule—and he would always pick Standard, Read More

With This Ring I’m not superstitious or especially sentimental,  and that’s a good thing because over the years I’ve lost some precious pieces of jewelry –  two or three watches,  innumerable earrings,  and even a few wedding rings. When we married my husband gave me a simple band – not of gold or silver but… Read More

I feel that the world is open to me. Read More

Many kids had cap guns in holsters on their hips. These were loaded with red strips which were impregnated with dots of chemicals, and would explode with a loud bang when the trigger was pulled.  Read More

The skin on my grandmother’s hands was paper thin. It’s what I remember most about her. She also had piercing brown eyes and a way of clamping her lips together that signaled her disapproval. She wasn’t a warm and affectionate sort of grandmother. Not at all. She was more of a “my way or the… Read More

Is an ancestor's portrait classy, or just pretentious? Read More

Health, education, and welfare: equality is improving, but progress is uneven. Read More

I had hair; my grandfather didn't. So it was only fair to let him wear the mortarboard. Read More