Suprise Me

It was a time of experimentation and self-expression, and self-express we did. Read More

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

Allowing kids to name their pets leads to the most creative and special pet names. Read More

The Brandeis Theatre Department hired a new scenic painter in 1973. In addition to painting all the backdrops, he also taught a life drawing course and advertised for models. I had done a little modeling during my time at Brandeis, but nothing note-worthy. This was a real class, taught by a master, so I signed… Read More

I didn’t like chain letters but didn’t want to wimp out either. I always held out hope that something good would come from them. If I got one, I sent it on to girls from my cabin from the previous summer. Interlochen provided us with addresses of all who had attended each year. But, like… Read More

My mother set tight limits on me when I was young. I was not trendy. I did not wear go-go boots, Mondrian dresses, Twiggy eyelashes. She didn’t let me pierce my ears when all my friends did. I did not have a blunt cut “Sassoon” hairstyle. I didn’t go ga-ga over the boy bands of… Read More

He bought us ice cream and pretended to scold us when we stuck out our tongues to lick our cones. When we sat next to him with food on our plates, he'd look surprised and point at something behind us. We'd turn around to look, and he'd have taken a bite of our sandwich. His big blue eyes gave nothing away--he was innocent! Read More

My younger son was in nursery school at the time and his best buddy, Dugan, thought her name was “Fleabee”, to the amusement of us all. Read More

Summer camp was a major part of my childhood experience. Not only the eight weeks I spent there each summer, but the letters back and forth to camp friends for the other ten months of the year. We poured out our hearts to each other in ways that we would never do with friends at home.… Read More

Thankfully, one summer 52 years ago my husband I made an impractical and probably irresponsible choice. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of our lives. Read More