Europe on 5 Memories a Day
But here we were, far from home, fresh, excited and full of expectations. Even the toilet paper was an adventure as we [...]
How I Learned To Stop Being A Litterbug
I had the good fortune (Koun) to travel to Japan on business. I was familiar with Lederer/ Burdick’s The Ugly American [...]
Tradition
As a child I heard Yiddish spoken by my European-born grandparents and my first-generation American parents, yet I never had [...]
Found in Conversation
I was incredibly nervous, never having taught anything, let alone ESL, before.
Lost in Translucence (a Patois)
...as the ring transitioned from the world of the real and visible to the underwater world of Neptune and Ariel and Moby Dick...
Fromlostiano
No, fromlostiano is not the name of a song, as far as I know. It is a Spanish word for comical Spanish-to-English translations.
The Localizer
The copy kept referencing a "head shop." Of course, they didn't know what that meant in the 1960s in the US.
We’re Doing the Best That We Can
On my first day, it was show time. I nervously knocked on the door and entered to find a pleasant young man who listened [...]
Âllo Oui
We knew from past experience that we would struggle in Paris unless our kids helped, which they refused to do.
Prague, 2003
My second advantage , I am certain, was that they had concluded I had gone completely crazy ...
Sissi’s 60th
My devotion to my cousin Alan Jackson, and great sorrow when he died young, in 1981 was documented in Action Jackson. I was [...]
Alas and Alain
When I was in high school, we housed for several weeks one summer a French student about my age named Alain. This was not [...]
44 Curzon Street
I originally published this story for the FAMILY TRIPS prompt, but if you haven’t read it or don’t remember it, I hope [...]
Parlez-vous Francais?
I originally published this story for the RETIREMENT prompt,, but if you haven’t read it or don’t remember it, I hope [...]
New Stories on Old Prompts
What My Father Wrote for Me
How and why my [grand]mother was cooking on a ranch in Montana in the summer of 1918 is one of the stories I shall never know...
Prompted By What My Father Told Me
June 25, 2022
Past Stories You May Have Missed
RIP VCRs
Oh, it was so great at the beginning. My husband brought home the machine from his office and we went off the the video [...]
Prompted By Good Riddance
October 1, 2018
Peter Pan in the Backyard
My older brother and I were both artsy kids. We both still sing and I was a Theatre major in college. As children in Detroit, [...]
Prompted By Let's Put On a Show
July 23, 2017
shopping
(everything you buy in your session supports Retrospect)