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At Our Peril by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Earth Day

/ Stories

Climate change is real, pervasive, and all but overwhelms me when I think about it. Every day there is some new, shocking story about devastating storms in the south, floods in the midwest, tornadoes, hurricanes, melting of the polar ice cap, warming of the ocean, bleaching of the coral reefs. The list of  disasters caused…
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The “I Know Nothing About Taxes” Blues by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Taxes

/ Stories

I went straight from being my father’s dependent to being a married lady, so I have only signed a tax return. I have never done my own. I wouldn’t know where to begin. When we were first married, our taxes were simple. We had no investments, very little savings and made very little money. As…
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Neruda by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Poetry

/ Stories

I read Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s obituary with great sadness and keen interest. She passed away in 2006, aged 52 from breast cancer. She was a leading mezzo-soprano of her day and, though I’d never heard her perform, our lives intersected at a few points. She had also attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in her youth,…
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Jackie by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Women We Admire

/ Stories

The epitome of grace, class, and intelligence, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was, from the time I was very young, my idol. She married John F. Kennedy when I was a baby and she set about having babies too. She was married to JFK a mere 10 years and was pregnant five times, resulting in only…
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11th Birthday by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Betrayal

/ Stories

My mother was still in a deep depression, too tranqed out on Miltowns to take care of me, much less plan a birthday party. Dad owned a car dealership; worked six days and two nights a week. He cared but just wasn’t there. We had been in the neighborhood 2 1/2 months and I didn’t…
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Road Trip with Family by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Spring Break

/ Stories

I had the IUD inserted just before coming home for spring break my junior year at Brandeis. It was a Dalkon Shield and not really meant for young women like myself. I lay in bed for the rest of that day, bleeding and in pain. In fact, I bled for a long time after. I…
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Roach Motel by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By My First Apartment

/ Stories

We married after I graduated from Brandeis in Waltham, MA in 1974. I went home to Huntington Woods, MI to prepare for the wedding. Dan lived in the Boston area with his parents, so found our first apartment at 1105 Lexington Street, in Waltham, almost in Lexington. He worked in Waltham and within two months,…
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“Retro” Revival by
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(359 Stories)

Prompted By New Beginnings

/ Stories

She was bereft at the thought that we wouldn’t write weekly. We were a close-knit group and loved reading and commenting on each other’s stories. We had become long-distance friends and in one case, even met and spent a lovely day together. But when Suzy reached out, I told her I needed some time off.…
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Moving On by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Turning Points

/ Stories

Patti and John Zussman are among my oldest and dearest friends. So I was pleased and honored when they contacted me, nearly three years ago, to be a beta tester for their new website “MyRetrospect.com”. They explained it was a story-sharing medium for baby-boomers to tell their tales, based on prompts the site would provide.…
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Simple Gifts by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Gifts

/ Stories

He gave me all kinds of intangible gifts. As I wrote in Dude – A Message of Love, I knew Dude Stephenson virtually my whole life as he was my operetta teacher for five glorious summers at the National Music Camp, Interlochen, MI from 1965-1969. He taught me the value of being an important member of…
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