Suprise Me

I graduated from Brandeis in 1974 with a degree in Theatre Arts and a Massachusetts Secondary Teaching Certificate. I also got married a month after graduating. Dan, my new husband, worked at a small software company in Waltham, MA called SofTech, but would start graduate school in the fall, though he continued to work part… Read More

Skee Ball 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

Readers of Retrospect may recall my maternal grandparents from two other stories, No Way To Say Goodbye, about my grandfather’s death, and Which Side Are You On?, in which I discussed their flight from the Cossacks and their search for the American Dream. They were a significant part of my childhood, living with my parents, my sisters, and me in our… Read More

I do not relate to the idea that group photos are no longer in vogue. For me they are a constant in my life! Read More

No matter where I am–at home or abroad–people ask me for directions. I don’t know why. Most of the time I can answer correctly, but I’m sure I’ve made some mistakes. Years ago, I brought this up at lunch with my friends and colleagues at the high school where I worked. One of the (younger)… Read More

BRUCE AND THE E STREET BAND  PLAYING, AT FULL VOLUME, BORN TO RUN.   the power of the words, the skill of the band, and a quiet anger–taken together, they lift me up Read More

Earlier, life seemed to be an endless acquisition of information and experience.  More and more stuffed into my brain.  At some point, that balance seems to have tipped into forgetting more than remembering. Read More

I’d heard how tough and intimidating Lucille Ball could be, but on the day I interviewed her at her home in Beverly Hills she was warm, unguarded and down-to-earth. It felt like hanging out with a favorite aunt. Lucy picked up quickly on the fact that I was a fan, and since I was young… Read More

When I looked out the front door, I saw a hip-deep lake where my yard had been ... Read More

  Ah, waiting rooms. Those fluorescent-lit purgatories where childhood dreams went to die a slow, magazine-fueled death. Remember those giant, uncomfortable chairs swallowing you whole like a bad couch on “Laugh-In”? The only escape? Dog-eared copies of National Geographic filled with pictures of naked butts and confusing maps of exotic lands (where, presumably, dentists/ doctors… Read More