Then, socially awkward teen. Now, once in a while I don’t feel socially awkward for a minute but then put my foot in my mouth and chew vigorously, or realize just seconds too late that, yes, that was yet another party foul. All too easy to revert to form and that socially awkward teen mode.… Read More

If the house is ever on fire I pray these make it out safely. Admittedly unprepossessing, they are my childhood stuffed toys. The doll I named Margie after my older cousin whom I thought the most beautiful of girls, and Rory, cause elephants roar, get it? Um, right. Mom made the little dress for Margie… Read More

Mom showed the German part of her heritage when instead of telling us to sit down she would say, “Sitzen Sie.” Dad showed the I Don’t Know What part of his heritage when he would randomly interject, “Rowdy dowdy dowdy dow.” You don’t often hear this term anymore, but on a couple of occasions he… Read More

A guy had to go up into the tree, swinging around on ropes, a real life Tarzan. Read More

Manys the time I woke up super early on Saturday morning and turned on the TV before the farm report even came on while mom and dad slept in. Cartoons were a lot trippier then and didn’t even seem particularly made for kids. There were Heckle and Jeckle and the really early Mighty Mouse and… Read More

My mom owned her own business. She had a beauty shop in the front of our house, complete with the stations with the big mirrors and a row of driers and a little rolling table with the stuff for doing manicures. I was always surprised when friends thought I was so lucky regarding that. I… Read More

I think my mom was ahead of her time, a real ‘Granola.’ She didn’t look anything like a hippie, but she read religiously things like Prevention Magazine and  books on natural ways to have healthy children. We ate piles of vitamins and supplements. From a very young age I knew what each one was and… Read More

In the early days of high school I went to my first concert, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. They filled the Coliseum. To me it was an Event with a capital E and I remember clearly what I wore. A white blouse of dotted Swiss with big full sleeves gathered at the wrist,… Read More