“Hi mom, it’s me, calling from Sweden.” This will have to be short. It is expensive. “When was Grandma born?” “What was her father’s name?” I need some crumb of information if we are to have any luck tracking down relatives, and this was all unplanned. 1897. Carl Corsberg, from ”Smaland”. That will have to…
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“Hi mom, it’s me, calling from Sweden.” This will have to be short. It is expensive. “When was Grandma born?” “What was her father’s name?” I need some crumb of information if we are to have any luck tracking down relatives, and this was all unplanned. 1897. Carl Corsberg, from ”Smaland”. That will have to…
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Won't you please move closer? Now, say, "Cheese"!
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“It’s snowing!” And all the kids in Mrs. Kennerson’s first grade class jumped up from our desk chairs as one, rushing excitedly to the window. Outside, flurries spun and danced in the wind, and for that moment, it was the most important thing in the world.
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Memories of when I lived on Sumac Ridge (with apologies to Robert Frost).
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We had a whole ten days off, a fiftieth birthday to celebrate, a new telescope to try out, and a good grasp of Spanish. A map. No GPS, smart phone, or travel internet then.
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A woman was “looking at the corn” when she blew a stop sign and T-boned our car.
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I'm not really someone who makes new year's resolutions, but this year Sally announced she plans to learn to play the old accordion she bought on a whim years ago.
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Actually, sometimes I really like getting a letter.
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When I started thinking about this prompt, I started a list of all the reasons I had to be grateful, and soon found there was a true embarrassment of riches. When stacked up next to myriad reasons to be dismayed, angry, and depressed, an old saying came to mind: “I guess a man (sic) is…
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All efforts to improve health are based on helping the body to heal itself, be it through emotional support, listening, suggestions for nutrition or activity, medications or surgeries, self-care or connection to a healthy environment.
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With apologies to Ms Franklin
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I had a glimpse of the future at East Lansing Junior High--and it didn't look good. It seemed like a reprieve when our family moved to the other side of the world. I wasn't sorry.
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Once it got dark, the kids would hit the residential streets in roving bands gone wild, armed with big bags, running to each porchlight to cry, “Trickertreat!" at the door.
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At age 92, there was no treatment for him; usually the end would come from some infection his blood cells could no longer fight off. When? Maybe a month or two, max. Maybe tomorrow. No one knew. He got very quiet and then said, “Oh. I guess I had better make some phone calls.”
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The traffic going into London for the morning commute is insane. The roads in London are impossible (and no GPS then). Finding the cute little hotel in the Bloomsbury District would have been a challenge if we were awake and oriented; we were not.
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I just remember it was the girls crowding around my dad, and it was a very special time. Each week, he put aside his work and read us a chapter.
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Meals were a challenge when I was a resident on hospital rotations. There were no official breaks, no lunch, dinner, or breakfast hours, just work that had to be done and rounds to attend. Sure, there were cafeterias with overcooked steam trays of food, but they weren’t open 24/7, and weren’t free. Finding a moment…
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It is not foreign terrorists who invaded the US Capitol, corrupted democracy, attacked the press, blocked voting, tried to install an unelected autocrat, attacked public health, imposed punishments with religious zealotry against women, or damaged the rule of law.
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It was clear I needed a job. Turning twenty, literate (two years of college behind me), energetic, and flexible—surely this would not be too hard. But it turned out I knew nothing about finding work.
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The house was a study in deferred maintenance. Charming, with furniture, bedding, kitchen ware, and barn implements still in place, but old. He was a budding architect. I was a friend of a friend with no repair skills to speak of, but had youthful enthusiasm, and came cheap.
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Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a high school far, far away, there was a computer date dance.
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Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.
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And yet, somehow, I have experienced cotton candy, apple fritters, kettle corn, corn dogs, Indian tacos and bannock, and have roamed through outdoor venues with crowds of young people milling around midways, carnies, pavilions with exotic chickens, beer fests, dog shows, food trucks, music stages, lumberjack contests, and barrel races. Not to mention street fairs and parades of all stripes. I just can’t tell you where and when.
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So many to choose from, and what a long, strange trip it's been...
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I suppose most memorable family vacations have something that goes wrong.
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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.
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As we pulled onto the onramp of 580, I screamed that we had to go back, NOW!
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I was made Queen for a Day. But that started a Family Feud and landed me in Jeopardy.
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It was lonely. I suppose it was just adolescent agonizing over the search for independence and existential meaning, while simultaneously longing for acceptance and inclusion from kids my age. You know, the usual.
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A litter of kittens frolicking in the California sun, named by my teenaged aunt Susan: Peanuts, Schroeder, Linus and Charley Brown. Left behind when his family moved, we inherited the tawny pai dog. Feral and battle-scarred, a forever stray who one day vanished. Bishkar. Gray and white cat, clawing, meowing, rubbing, always knowing how to…
Read More
With apologies to Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist.
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Then, in the fall of 1963, an amazing thing happened. The State Department, through the United States Information Service (USIS), sponsored a goodwill tour of American jazz musicians. None other than the Duke Ellington Band—yes, that one!--made an astoundingly extensive tour that, according to google, went from New York to Damascus, Amman, Jerusalem, Beirut, Kabul, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Colombo, Kandy, Dacca, Lahore, Karachi, Teheran, Isfahan, Abadan, Baghdad, Beirut and Ankara. You may have noticed Dacca in that list.
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I think it was my fourteenth birthday when my father bought me a transistor radio. They were a wonder. Mine was small enough to hold in a hand, with a little leatherette case and ear bud, from Japan.
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In the end, she decided she didn’t want to break up the family, and returned, telling my father never to mention the idea of doing a PhD to her, EVER! It was too late. That was that.
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In 1957, travel overseas meant lots of shots for our whole family—Mom. Dad, and three children. I was the middle child, age 6. We had to go to a special clinic in downtown Lansing, and we children were promised we would be taken out to dinner if we “behaved”. This would be a big deal…
Read More
We had no details. Television? None in the house. Radio? I can’t recall. And really, why should it be covered 24/7 in Botswana? When you read about a disaster on the other side of the world, how many details do you hear? Internet? Smartphone? This was 1989.
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In the darkness, find light
Sun shines, laughter peals
Watch again and again
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The Goops, they lick their fingers,
And the Goops, they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth,
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
Read More
Somehow, we turned into a street and found ourselves in Old Dacca, where we clearly didn’t belong.
Read More
Sally called me Cyd Charisse, but the hairdo was the only resemblance.
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In Canada, new programs were suddenly in place for the unemployed and businesses. Schools closed, gatherings were progressively smaller. Everything was changed, reminding me that “normal” can dissipate overnight. I harbored a guilty thought—could world-on-pause be something good?
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Kids! Try this at home!
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I didn’t learn who McCarthy was until much later. And I know now why news is so important.
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Now that decision seems pre-ordained and perfect, as life never is--but it is for me.
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I don’t think the memory of that ever left her, written wordlessly in a scar on her heart.
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I just did an inventory: 81.
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The executive team fought unionization ferociously-- we were fomenting discord and destroying the clinic, and how could we do this to the community?
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I always thought I had a knack for drawing. Someone encouraged this when I was twelve, a year when my family was stationed in East Pakistan, and I came under the wing of an ex-pat Danish artist name Tova. She helped me do an oil painting for my parents, a still life with two…
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Trust yourself.
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There is only ONE THING you are permitted to say
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The most complete darkness I ever knew was in Vietnam
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applying for med school while female
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The Accidental Genealogist
Prompted By Group Photos
/ Stories
“Hi mom, it’s me, calling from Sweden.” This will have to be short. It is expensive. “When was Grandma born?” “What was her father’s name?” I need some crumb of information if we are to have any luck tracking down relatives, and this was all unplanned. 1897. Carl Corsberg, from ”Smaland”. That will have to…
Read More
C’est Cheese Retroflash
Prompted By Group Photos
/ Stories
Won't you please move closer? Now, say, "Cheese"!
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The First Snowflakes
Prompted By Snowy Days
/ Stories
“It’s snowing!” And all the kids in Mrs. Kennerson’s first grade class jumped up from our desk chairs as one, rushing excitedly to the window. Outside, flurries spun and danced in the wind, and for that moment, it was the most important thing in the world.
Read More
Shoveling the Drive on a Snowy Morning
Prompted By Snowy Days
/ Stories
Memories of when I lived on Sumac Ridge (with apologies to Robert Frost).
Read More
Kindness of Strangers
Prompted By Highways and Byways
/ Stories
We had a whole ten days off, a fiftieth birthday to celebrate, a new telescope to try out, and a good grasp of Spanish. A map. No GPS, smart phone, or travel internet then.
Read More
A Comin’ Through the Corn
Prompted By Highways and Byways
/ Stories
A woman was “looking at the corn” when she blew a stop sign and T-boned our car.
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Be it resolved retroflash
Prompted By Resolutions
/ Stories
I'm not really someone who makes new year's resolutions, but this year Sally announced she plans to learn to play the old accordion she bought on a whim years ago.
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Holiday meme retroflash
Prompted By Holiday Letters
/ Stories
Actually, sometimes I really like getting a letter.
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Lucky dog retro flash
Prompted By An Attitude of Gratitude
/ Stories
When I started thinking about this prompt, I started a list of all the reasons I had to be grateful, and soon found there was a true embarrassment of riches. When stacked up next to myriad reasons to be dismayed, angry, and depressed, an old saying came to mind: “I guess a man (sic) is…
Read More
In it for Life
Prompted By Family Medicine
/ Stories
All efforts to improve health are based on helping the body to heal itself, be it through emotional support, listening, suggestions for nutrition or activity, medications or surgeries, self-care or connection to a healthy environment.
Read More
Chain, chain, chain retroflash
Prompted By Chain Letters
/ Stories
With apologies to Ms Franklin
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Non, je ne regrette rien!
Prompted By Regrets
/ Stories
I had a glimpse of the future at East Lansing Junior High--and it didn't look good. It seemed like a reprieve when our family moved to the other side of the world. I wasn't sorry.
Read More
“Trickertreat”
Prompted By Trick or Treat?
/ Stories
Once it got dark, the kids would hit the residential streets in roving bands gone wild, armed with big bags, running to each porchlight to cry, “Trickertreat!" at the door.
Read More
A Good Death
Prompted By Lemons to Lemonade
/ Stories
At age 92, there was no treatment for him; usually the end would come from some infection his blood cells could no longer fight off. When? Maybe a month or two, max. Maybe tomorrow. No one knew. He got very quiet and then said, “Oh. I guess I had better make some phone calls.”
Read More
Avoiding the Boot
Prompted By Parking
/ Stories
The traffic going into London for the morning commute is insane. The roads in London are impossible (and no GPS then). Finding the cute little hotel in the Bloomsbury District would have been a challenge if we were awake and oriented; we were not.
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Happy reading to all
Prompted By Children's Books
/ Stories
I just remember it was the girls crowding around my dad, and it was a very special time. Each week, he put aside his work and read us a chapter.
Read More
Lunch box
Prompted By Mealtime
/ Stories
Meals were a challenge when I was a resident on hospital rotations. There were no official breaks, no lunch, dinner, or breakfast hours, just work that had to be done and rounds to attend. Sure, there were cafeterias with overcooked steam trays of food, but they weren’t open 24/7, and weren’t free. Finding a moment…
Read More
We have met the Enemy–Retroflash
Prompted By 9/11 Twenty Years Later
/ Stories
It is not foreign terrorists who invaded the US Capitol, corrupted democracy, attacked the press, blocked voting, tried to install an unelected autocrat, attacked public health, imposed punishments with religious zealotry against women, or damaged the rule of law.
Read More
Trying to work
Prompted By Going to Work
/ Stories
It was clear I needed a job. Turning twenty, literate (two years of college behind me), energetic, and flexible—surely this would not be too hard. But it turned out I knew nothing about finding work.
Read More
This Old House
Prompted By Home Repair
/ Stories
The house was a study in deferred maintenance. Charming, with furniture, bedding, kitchen ware, and barn implements still in place, but old. He was a budding architect. I was a friend of a friend with no repair skills to speak of, but had youthful enthusiasm, and came cheap.
Read More
Oh joy! Oh f#ck! Oh crap! Sorry.
The Computer Date Dance
Prompted By Dating
/ Stories
Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a high school far, far away, there was a computer date dance.
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The Summer of our Discontent
Prompted By That Summer
/ Stories
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.
Read More
All is Fair
Prompted By State or County Fair
/ Stories
And yet, somehow, I have experienced cotton candy, apple fritters, kettle corn, corn dogs, Indian tacos and bannock, and have roamed through outdoor venues with crowds of young people milling around midways, carnies, pavilions with exotic chickens, beer fests, dog shows, food trucks, music stages, lumberjack contests, and barrel races. Not to mention street fairs and parades of all stripes. I just can’t tell you where and when.
Read More
Okay. We were definitely eclipse-chasers now.
Happy Anniversaries Retroflash
Prompted By Anniversaries
/ Stories
So many to choose from, and what a long, strange trip it's been...
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Diminished expectations
Prompted By Family Trips
/ Stories
I suppose most memorable family vacations have something that goes wrong.
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What did we know?
Prompted By Guns Then and Now
/ Stories
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
Smile!
Prompted By Can't Leave Home Without It
/ Stories
As we pulled onto the onramp of 580, I screamed that we had to go back, NOW!
Read More
Quiz show retroflash
Prompted By Quiz and Game Shows
/ Stories
I was made Queen for a Day. But that started a Family Feud and landed me in Jeopardy.
Read More
The anti-club
Prompted By Cliques and Clubs
/ Stories
It was lonely. I suppose it was just adolescent agonizing over the search for independence and existential meaning, while simultaneously longing for acceptance and inclusion from kids my age. You know, the usual.
Read More
If the name fits, wear it
Prompted By Naming Pets
/ Stories
A litter of kittens frolicking in the California sun, named by my teenaged aunt Susan: Peanuts, Schroeder, Linus and Charley Brown. Left behind when his family moved, we inherited the tawny pai dog. Feral and battle-scarred, a forever stray who one day vanished. Bishkar. Gray and white cat, clawing, meowing, rubbing, always knowing how to…
Read More
Blowin’ in the Wind
Prompted By Recycling
/ Stories
With apologies to Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist.
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And the best of all, Sir Duke
Prompted By Separating the Art from the Artist
/ Stories
Then, in the fall of 1963, an amazing thing happened. The State Department, through the United States Information Service (USIS), sponsored a goodwill tour of American jazz musicians. None other than the Duke Ellington Band—yes, that one!--made an astoundingly extensive tour that, according to google, went from New York to Damascus, Amman, Jerusalem, Beirut, Kabul, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Colombo, Kandy, Dacca, Lahore, Karachi, Teheran, Isfahan, Abadan, Baghdad, Beirut and Ankara. You may have noticed Dacca in that list.
Read More
Que sera, sera
Prompted By Remembering Radios
/ Stories
I think it was my fourteenth birthday when my father bought me a transistor radio. They were a wonder. Mine was small enough to hold in a hand, with a little leatherette case and ear bud, from Japan.
Read More
A bumpy section of the journey
Prompted By Stay-at-Home Parent
/ Stories
In the end, she decided she didn’t want to break up the family, and returned, telling my father never to mention the idea of doing a PhD to her, EVER! It was too late. That was that.
Read More
This won’t hurt a bit
Prompted By Vaccination
/ Stories
In 1957, travel overseas meant lots of shots for our whole family—Mom. Dad, and three children. I was the middle child, age 6. We had to go to a special clinic in downtown Lansing, and we children were promised we would be taken out to dinner if we “behaved”. This would be a big deal…
Read More
I Just Called..
Prompted By Technology Tribulations
/ Stories
We had no details. Television? None in the house. Radio? I can’t recall. And really, why should it be covered 24/7 in Botswana? When you read about a disaster on the other side of the world, how many details do you hear? Internet? Smartphone? This was 1989.
Read More
Movie Review Haiku
Prompted By Rewatchable Movies
/ Stories
In the darkness, find light
Sun shines, laughter peals
Watch again and again
Read More
Table Manners: A Case Study
Prompted By Manners
/ Stories
The Goops, they lick their fingers,
And the Goops, they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth,
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
Read More
Lessons from Old Dacca
Prompted By Inequality
/ Stories
Somehow, we turned into a street and found ourselves in Old Dacca, where we clearly didn’t belong.
Read More
With apologies to Julie Andrews.
Haircut in Istanbul
Prompted By Haircuts
/ Stories
Sally called me Cyd Charisse, but the hairdo was the only resemblance.
Read More
Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe
Prompted By One Year of the Pandemic
/ Stories
In Canada, new programs were suddenly in place for the unemployed and businesses. Schools closed, gatherings were progressively smaller. Everything was changed, reminding me that “normal” can dissipate overnight. I harbored a guilty thought—could world-on-pause be something good?
Read More
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Prompted By Advertising Jingles and Slogans
/ Stories
Kids! Try this at home!
Read More
Good Night and Good Luck Retroflash
Prompted By First Memory
/ Stories
I didn’t learn who McCarthy was until much later. And I know now why news is so important.
Read More
Righteous persistence brings great rewards
Prompted By Reconnecting
/ Stories
Now that decision seems pre-ordained and perfect, as life never is--but it is for me.
Read More
We’d make a peach of a pair
Prompted By Valentine's Day
/ Stories
I don’t think the memory of that ever left her, written wordlessly in a scar on her heart.
Read More
The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Prompted By Hats
/ Stories
I just did an inventory: 81.
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Viva nuestra asociación
Prompted By Good Trouble
/ Stories
The executive team fought unionization ferociously-- we were fomenting discord and destroying the clinic, and how could we do this to the community?
Read More
Art at Harvard?
Prompted By Art and Art Museums
/ Stories
I always thought I had a knack for drawing. Someone encouraged this when I was twelve, a year when my family was stationed in East Pakistan, and I came under the wing of an ex-pat Danish artist name Tova. She helped me do an oil painting for my parents, a still life with two…
Read More
You’re on the right track baby
Prompted By Letter to My Younger Self
/ Stories
Trust yourself.
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Thank you lessons
Prompted By Thank You
/ Stories
There is only ONE THING you are permitted to say
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Lights out in Vietnam
Prompted By Hello Darkness
/ Stories
The most complete darkness I ever knew was in Vietnam
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The Medical School Interview
Prompted By Interviews
/ Stories
applying for med school while female
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