Suprise Me

When I was in junior high, the hairstyle to aim for was straight, shiny (see Breck ads), and rolled up  at the ends. My friend Linda always had perfect hair, a shoulder-length sheet ending in a neat hair-tube curving around the back of her neck. I had no success at this. Curlers would fall out in… Read More

Because all appearances to the contrary, I tended to play it safe... Read More

While at first I didn't relish the extra burden, the experience turned out to be a gift. Read More

Mother Once a Native American man told me that if you lie face down  with head pointed north and feet pointed south the earth mother would accept any grief  in your heart                       cleansing you, freeing                   … Read More

Mother’s Day 1985,  Van Courtlandt Park After the lunch and the long-stemmed rose,  we stopped in the park for a catch.  My husband took the baseball gloves from the trunk of the car and tossed one to each of us. “Both of you spread out.”   he said,  and so obediently we each trotted across… Read More

Rowboat When I was young my grandmother ran a small hotel on a lake in the Catskills,  and I’ve written about the idyllic summers I spent there with my family.  (See My Heart Remembers My Grandmother’s Hotel,  My Game Mother, Hotel Kittens,  The Cat and the Forshpeiz,  Playing with Fire, and The Troubadour) One happy memory of those… Read More

From my father, I inherited the importance of honesty and fairness regarding taxes. Read More

        Retrospect: 1968 A year of upheaval, of protest, of a man landing on the moon. But let’s talk about the real drama: hair. The year was a mane-iacal frenzy. Hair grew longer, wilder, and more defiant with each passing month. It was as if the world was collectively saying, “Screw it,… Read More

When I was twelve or thirteen, my family moved to New Jersey, and I became friends with a group of little girls who were all good at, and experienced at, babysitting. I wanted to earn money, and I wanted to be good at the job too, but I wasn’t. I didn’t have any younger siblings… Read More

Spoiler Alert! When Chevy Chase’s movie European Vacation  came out I watched it with my son and we thought it was hilarious. My husband hadn’t seen it and we regaled him with all the funny bits.  Sometime later we watched it together,  but to our surprise he didn’t find it very funny. Then he told… Read More