The Chair in the Courtyard When I met my friend Rose she’d been a window for several years.  She spoke lovingly about her late husband Bob and I soon learned he’d been her second husband. One day over lunch Rose and I were reminiscing about our past lives and she told me this story. She’d… Read More

Rye Playland Growing up in the Bronx our nearest amusement park was Rye Playland on Long Island Sound north of the city in Westchester County. As a kid I was often taken there by my parents,  but my memories of those childhood trips are vague.  As a teenager however, I remember Rye as a favorite… Read More

Lydia Before tattooing became as commonplace as it is today –  especially for women  – there was Lydia. And here’s Groucho to tell us all about her! – Dana Susan Lehrman Read More

Fear of the Other I’m a white woman who for years worked in a public high school in New York’s inner city –  in fact in the infamous south Bronx of Fort Apache fame. I usually carpooled to work with fellow teachers  but at times took the subway from my upper east-side Manhattan neighborhood .  As… Read More

A Glass Menagerie from The Five and Dime When I was a kid there were two stores In my Bronx neighborhood we called the “five-and-dimes”.  One was Woolworth which of course was a national chain,  and the other was Fishers which I think was just a local store.  Yet to my child’s sensibility they were… Read More

The Great Pickleball Noise War I was an adult when I started playing tennis seriously,  but try as I might to ratchet up my game I seemed to have plateaued at intermediate level 3.  I was too good to enjoy playing with beginners,  and not good enough to play with advanced players who certainly didn’t… Read More

Ulysses  Please don’t think I’m an insufferable literary snob if I tell you I’ve read Ulysses several times.   But in fact I have,  and I think it’s indeed a masterpiece,  and not at all as hard to read and understand as you may have been led to believe.  (See My Love Affair with James Joyce)… Read More

Mother’s Little Helper After a trouble-free pregnancy,  and a complication-free C-section, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy.   We hired a wonderful baby nurse to show us the ropes,  we had loving  grandparents living nearby,  and I was on maternity leave from a job I loved that would wait for me when I… Read More

Washed Apple My father was a wonderful guy and I’ve shared many loving memories of him.  (See My Father, the Outsider Artist,  My Dad and the Word Processor, Saying Farewell to a Special Guy,  and Six Pack) But he did have some strange food-related tastes and habits.   Apples were his favorite fruit,  and when… Read More

The Sweeter the Wine Wine was not exactly an acquired taste of mine,  but rather a delayed one.   For years I was a teetotaler – not by choice mind you,   but on doctor’s orders.   I suffered from migraine headaches since I was a young girl,   and I had been told wine… Read More