Retrospect: Forgetting By Kevin J. W. Driscoll (c) 2024 I’ve lost my car and house keys more times than I can count. Once, I even forgot where I parked my car. It’s like my brain is a sieve, letting all the important stuff slip through while holding onto useless trivia like the… Read More

I’ve never liked to grocery shop. Though, I became a good cook and baker. Go figure. But to go grocery shopping variously? Count me in. Throw in some competition?  There’s no way I passing this opportunity up!  Maybe you remember, or can guess, what I’m talking about.  YES, it’s the show “The Super Market Sweep’. … Read More

Saturday Night at the Big Y When the lights went out in New York during the great northeast blackout of 1965,  I was browsing with a friend at Georg Jensen,  an upscale Madison Avenue shop.   All us shoppers held hands,  and in single file we groped our way out to the dark street.  (See Aunt… Read More

As I was preparing for Thanksgiving this past November I thought about a Thanksgiving we celebrated several years ago. That year as the holiday approached  I fretted over the many regrets I’d gotten in the past to my Thanksgiving invitations. One of my cousins and his family usually celebrated with his in-laws;  another often went… Read More

As the Passover season approaches I often find  myself laughing over something that happened many years ago. We were having 18 for Seder,  and after calling the butcher to order lamb for my traditional stew,  I wrote out a long shopping list for everything else I needed,  and headed for the  supermarket. Not surprisingly,  the… Read More

My mother always had a fondness for the scroll of hand-painted figures, dressed in traditional Chinese clothes, carrying produce or hawking other wares.  They were framed in pieces and hung on the wall along with other mementoes from her time in Peking (now Beijing) in the late 1940’s.  She lived in a neighborhood of classic… Read More

  Supermarkets, those sprawling temples of consumerism, have been a fixture in our lives for over a century. From the first Piggly Wiggly in Memphis to the sprawling mega-stores of today, these retail behemoths have witnessed countless triumphs and tribulations. While most of our supermarket experiences are routine and unremarkable, there are those occasional encounters… Read More

Skee Balll When I was a kid my grandparents lived a few blocks from the beach in Far Rockaway,  in Queens,  New York.   I loved visiting them  – and especially in the summer when Rockaways Playland was open for the season. Created in 1902 by roller coaster designer LaMarcus Adna Thompson,  Rockaways Playland had… Read More

Both Sides Now 1968 was a pivotal year for our nation,  and it was for me personally as well. That year Judy Collins recorded the Joni Mitchell song Both Sides Now,  and I listened to it over and over again.  In 1968  I was looking at love from both sides myself,  and in June I… Read More

In the summer, the dense greenery along the Potomac River covers houses, streets, and history.  We moved to the area in 1966 and slowly discovered some unexpected treasures--the towpath along the abandoned C & O canal, Sycamore Island, the old settlement of Cabin John, the Clara Barton house.  The Glen Echo Amusement Park. Read More