Stories on This Week's Writing Prompt
Featured Story
Estee Lauder
Grammy Brown taught me how to file my fingernails with an emery board. She made peach pie. She always smelled just a tiny bit [...]
Readers’ Choice
Poker Night
My grandfather died when I was a kid, but he gave me a love for the game.
Grace
We did not relish listening to praise and platitudes about a woman who was, to put it charitably, hard to get along with.
How We Like Our Eggs
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 [...]
Grandma Anna
In the early 1950’s, my grandmother lived along the highway between Palm Springs and Los Angeles. She raised chickens [...]
He Was the Egg Man
He bought us ice cream and pretended to scold us when we stuck out our tongues to lick our cones. When we sat next to him [...]
Baby Girl
Baby Girl Downstairs in the open loft apartment, I hear above me my daughter and her husband and my new grandbaby having one [...]
Grampa’s Hands
Grampa’s hands Grampa had sparkly brown eyes that simply shone when he told stories about his postal delivery days, or [...]
A Nudge and a Hug From Grandma
My life today is all about memories. I share them from the past and make them for the future. Growing up, my grandmother gave [...]
A Valentine to My Grandkids
The thing that connects babies to their parents and children to their grandparents is love.
Gladie and Erv
Before I gave Gladys and Erv Pfau their first grandchild, of unknown sex (I was 32 years old, had been married to their [...]
Those Were the Days, My Friend
Readers of Retrospect may recall my maternal grandparents from two other stories, No Way To Say Goodbye, about my [...]
My Grandmother Jocelyn Would Be Proud
One morning my parents sat me down and told me that Jocelyn had passed away… that was when I started being serious about [...]
Charles and Louise — Liars, lovers, and mythmakers
I never knew my grandparents. They died long before I was born. My father died before he could describe them to me. Given the [...]
Regret
I don’t have a fantastic story about bonding with my grandparents. Unfortunately, being of Japanese descent, there is [...]
To Be or Not to Be, that is the Question
Grandmothers and their joys and waiting patiently for what will be.
Belle & Zalman
My mother’s parents came from Bialystock, still part of Russia when they met in 1902. I have a fancy dress from [...]
Best Gift Ever
Other than possibly a bicycle I got for Christmas when I was 11 or 12 years old, I cannot recall any gift I ever received as [...]
Grandma Rose
She passed for 16 so she could work in a garment factory. She never saw the inside of a school room but had wanted to be a [...]
War Stories
As a historical novelist, I love doing research. I can and do lose days at a time finding and reading background information [...]
Visits from My Grandfather
It is his scent that comes back to me most strongly: a mixture of leather, Barbasol shaving cream, and cigars.
Stories from the Previous Prompt
Songs We Sang
Songs I Sang
This is Ophelia’s first song. It’s not the mad one where she hands out flowers and says that all will be well. I knew that [...]
The Myths of Christmas Music
I was crying for what isn’t, for the work and feeling that has gone into the Christmas music for as long there has been [...]
Other Recent Stories
Gates of Eden: the genesis of an antiwar novel*
My antiwar writing began in a theater. I was working on a new play and the antiwar movement of the 1960s came [...]
Prompted By The Draft & Vietnam
Take the Money and Run?
I checked the WSJ for the stock price, did the math and took a deep breath. Gentlemen don't tell, of course, but the [...]
Prompted By Temptation
MyRetrospect.com to Shut Down
We had a great run, but Retrospect Media, Inc. will soon cease operations. Learn the details on our blog.
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