Category Archives: Memories
Dream Job
I’m proud to be First Generation. The first generation to grow up with TV. My parents got their first television in 1951, the year I was born. They had the first TV in the family; the first TV in the neighborhood. They told me stories about everyone coming over on Friday night to watch Boxing. …
I.D.K.W.T.M.
I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS When I was seventeen, my sister’s boyfriend came home from his first semester at a New York acting school. He had a new word. “Heavy”. Like in, “Those jeans are so heavy.” I was a lifetime proponent of “Cool”. But oh, “Heavy” was so cool. So I went back …
The Smartest Person
My father died this past Christmas. Yesterday was his birthday. He would have been 89. My Dad was a man of great intelligence and corny jokes. As an engineer of precision gauges, he had a PhD mind and a high school diploma. He sang dumb words to old songs. “It had to be stew. Meat …
“Where’s my hat?” asked Waldo.
(Installment #2 for Heteronormative Week) While your kids are looking for Waldo, Waldo doesn’t seem to know how to look. Men can’t seem to find anything. They will holler (from another room, from another floor, and sometimes, by phone, from another state): “Where is: – the mail?” – the peanut butter?” – my watch?” – …
Hetero-normative Week: Fire
About six weeks ago, I posted an essay, “The Conspiracy” – a theory that men pass down from father to son the key to getting out of housework. Basically, just screw it up so bad that your wife will never ask you again. It was a relatively popular post, and I got quite a few appreciative …
The Sweet Spot
Dogs are good at lots of things. Welcoming you is probably their best talent. They will protect your house and take a walk with you and comfort you when you are sad. They also can bring you sticks and run around in circles. Cats, like Stewart here, excel at finding the sweet spot. That one place …
Isn’t It Romantic?
When I was a little girl, my mother had a ridiculous idea that she was delighted to share with me. Because I was such a princess, it was only fitting that I should marry a prince. Prince Charles, to be specific. He was two years older than I, and a perfect match in her mind. …
Sixty Is The New Thirty-Seven
This is my Great-Grandma’s (Meme’s) family. The photo was taken on Meme’s 80th birthday in 1951, the year I was born. There’s a photo somewhere of her in that same chair with me in her arms. But it’s this photo that fascinates me. Standing around Meme are her children. That’s my Grandma on the far …
How To Be Old
I’m normally not much of a concert-goer. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like crowded parking lots, and I especially don’t like crowded ladies’ rooms. I put up with all of the above for the love of my life, James Taylor. Everyone else, not so much. Recently, however, I went to two concerts in …
In My Genes
A quick self-confidence story: A few weeks back, my husband and I were having a philosophical discussion in the car. Conversations in the car are difficult – my husband is slightly deaf, and if you don’t talk right into his face, the hearing aids don’t necessarily pick it up. So car talk is loud. Which …
notquiteold 