View Susan's profile

Shy by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Drive-Ins

/ Stories

“There were several drive-ins around Spokane from the 1940s to the 1980s. A few lasted until the early 1990s. A family could take a fussy baby to the drive-in and no one complained. You could park near your friends and chat. Kids could play on a swing set near the screen. And, of course, a…
Read More

Club 50 by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Friendship

/ Stories

Celebrated the milestone with my own "Cool Girls Are 50" club.
Read More

Skippy and Chester by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Pets

/ Stories

Alcohol and pet adoption shouldn't mix.
Read More

Who Doesn’t Want a Wife? by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Women's Lib

/ Stories

In the fall of 1974 I arrived as an incoming freshwoman at Mills College in Oakland, California. We were each assigned a “zipper,” an upperclasswoman who helped orient us to the college, the Bay Area, and the particularities of language in the heyday of feminism. My college essay included something about how comfortable I expected…
Read More

Ice and Snow by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Snow

/ Stories

Winter in Spokane is an unpredictable thing.  There is usually at least one really good snowfall each year, and months of cold weather.  But there are some years where there can be a serious snow accumulation, followed by a warming trend to get things melting, then another cold snap.  And that could result in epic icicles. Our old…
Read More

The Return of Hair by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Hair

/ Stories

Imagine his mortification when the performers assemble on stage completely naked.
Read More

The Dead Relatives Tour by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By The Great Beyond

/ Stories

They were set aside as my Cemetery Shoes.
Read More

Quick Take on Halloween by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Apples? Bah humbug.
Read More

Leading the Band by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By In the Band

/ Stories

I paraded down Main Street with the highest hair and highest hemline I could muster.
Read More

It was a fraternity party. (Shhh.) by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By How We Met

/ Stories

"It's a dance. Well, it's a hoedown."
Read More

Feminine list by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Good Riddance

/ Stories

A quick list. Good riddance to a number of things, some of which passed through my life but briefly, others that lasted a long time. P.E. class. Prayer meetings. Striving to be a Virtuous Woman (a la Proverbs 31). Carbor paper, and typing up multiple copies of office memos for distribution and filing. Bow tie…
Read More

We called her Pam by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By My First Car

/ Stories

My church youth group pressed into Pam like clowns into a VW bug.
Read More

Exchange family by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Travel

/ Stories

Written in response to On the Road Again
His appetite insured we had no pesky leftovers cluttering the fridge!
Read More

Fireworks Behind the Scenes by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Fireworks

/ Stories

Get paid to blow things up?? He was in!
Read More

Not So Very Bold by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Weddings

/ Stories

A female officiant? My family was skeptical.
Read More

My Birthday by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Those We Miss

/ Stories

With some people it requires advancing years to bring a niggling sense of mortality.
Read More

Missing some, but not all by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Card catalogs, yes. Couples skate? Maybe not.
Read More

They’ll Laugh Someday by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By The Things I Keep

/ Stories

Laughing through tears, I can tell you, is really a thing.
Read More

If I heard it once by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

"Oh, Warren."
Read More

Manpower by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Why exactly did we need the hats?
Read More

St. George by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Pets

/ Stories

Prospective lizard owners take note, you also become cricket ranchers.
Read More

The Chuck Wagon by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Vacations

/ Stories

"What outfit do you cook for?"
Read More

I Wanna Hold Your Hand by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Teenager in Love

/ Stories

His sisters were all highland dancers and, hand to God, he played the bagpipes.
Read More

Into – and out of – pantyhose by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By What We Wore

/ Stories

I was stopped dead in my tracks one day when a young coworker said she had never worn pantyhose.
Read More

Princess Diana style by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By What We Wore

/ Stories

She lived her life in the public eye. And oh, did she look good doing it.
Read More

My Favorite Book by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Lost in Space

/ Stories

"The king is pregnant." C'mon, what's not to love about that sentence?
Read More

Second career by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By New Beginnings

/ Stories

At the time, in 2006, it seemed a promising idea.  I had just retired (early) from a long career at Stanford. One is eligible to retire when age plus years of service add up to the magic number 75.  Having started fresh out of college and worked straight through, my relative youth was augmented by…
Read More

Bernice, Therese, and a Duck by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Lessons

/ Stories

In first grade, I started ballet lessons.  Two sisters – Bernice and Therese – taught in the old craftsman-style home they shared.  Two adjoining front rooms were converted into one large studio, with a barre along one wall, carefully polished floors, and an old phonograph in a corner.  Bernice and Therese seemed about a hundred…
Read More

Sisters in hairstyling by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Hair

/ Stories

Come on Susan, I'll give you a *real* haircut!
Read More

Homesteading in South Dakota by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Grandpa was taught "the 3 R's plus" ...the plus included Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and French.
Read More

School Lunch by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Long before tv show caricatures, the Lunch Lady was an institution at our elementary school.
Read More

Exotic California by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Dear Mom and Dad, I wonder if you felt the same emptiness I did, when you dropped me off at college in the late 1970s.  I was standing at the entrance of my dorm at the top of a hill, watching as you drove off in the pickup and camper.  I don’t remember tears, but…
Read More

Vanishing Leftovers by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By What We Ate

/ Stories

She was also raised during the depression and hated waste, particularly food waste.
Read More

Freezer Money by
25
(34 Stories)

Prompted By Best Advice: Money

/ Stories

Two hundred dollars in - excuse the expression - cold, hard cash.
Read More