Suprise Me

I am not an easy person to buy presents for. I know that, and I discourage family members from buying me things. Because I hardly ever like them. They will invariably be the wrong color, or the wrong size, or the wrong shape, or just not something that is useful to me. Even jewelry, I… Read More

Early Session Commute I like to stay up late at night and sleep late in the morning.  (See Night Owl) But of course I couldn’t indulge those preferences during all my years working at a school,  especially the semesters I was on early session and had to punch a time clock at the ungodly hour… Read More

The Second Amendment to our Constitution allowed for a well-regulated militia to keep and bear arms to protect the State. In 2008, a court case ruled that individuals could keep guns at home for self protection. They were no longer just to be used for hunting or protection against an enemy of the government. Of… Read More

By Walter Nicklin Are they hiding, like stars no longer visible in the light-polluted sky? Or are they simply no longer here, gone forever, like the passenger pigeon or Good Lord Bird? What I hope to spot is another elusive species, rare and endangered, maybe even extinct. I feel like a frustrated sky-watcher or avid… Read More

As long as I know where the lake is, I know I am headed east. Read More

Releasing Roots I pull out Mama’s earrings From the tangle of jewelry In the re-used coconut butter jar, Gently pressing them  Into the ears that  She pierced with an icy potato And a thin-pained needle When I was 11 years old.  They were her favorites And though she taught me That earrings don’t have to… Read More

The names that populated his stories brought his remembered world to life.Hugh E. Morgan walking along Broad Street in the 1920s...John Roth, forever known to his peers as “Skunky Roth,”... Jim Parva, an umpire...who alternated between a falsetto and bass voice in calling balls and strikes... Read More

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. And the one that mother gives you, doesn’t do anything at all…. Go ask Alice, when she’s 10 feet tall. (Jefferson Airplane)   Music to every boomers’ ears. But, which side of the great divide did you settle into? Alas, are your memories enshrined… Read More

I never knew my grandparents. They died long before I was born. My father died before he could describe them to me. Given the circumstances surrounding his time with them, I doubt that he could have told me much. Therefore, my fact-or-fiction report springs from primary source materials including pictures, letters, and newspaper articles and… Read More

The epitome of grace, class, and intelligence, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was, from the time I was very young, my idol. She married John F. Kennedy when I was a baby and she set about having babies too. She was married to JFK a mere 10 years and was pregnant five times, resulting in only… Read More