September was my birthday, it was the start of a new school year, the sticky summer was through, the air was crisp and I might even have some new clothes. Of course it was my favorite. Read More

The Duck Pond My parents,  lifelong New Yorkers, would escape the city’s summer heat for vacations in the mountains –  in New York’s Catskills or New England’s Berkshires. Yet as they got older it was the winter cold that drove them out of the city.   And like many east coasters,  Florida became a desired… Read More

In the face of injustice ... resistance. Read More

I’m driving to work at the main post office in downtown Indianapolis.  I should be in college for my senior year, but I have been suspended due to my participation in disruptive protests during Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in the spring of 1970. Indianapolis is my hometown. I’m back in the house, living with my… Read More

Anti-Authoritarianism My German-born father was rather strict and accustomed to getting his own way.   When I turned 14 and was about to graduate from junior high he wanted to send me to boarding school in Switzerland.  I refused, not wanting to leave my friends and family. “It’s like the army,”  he retorted,  “and I’m… Read More

The Gift of the Marzipan Magi Our friend John’s parents,  like my husband Danny’s,  fled Europe in the late 1930s as the Nazi horror was unfolding.  John’s folks went first to Shanghai,  and then on to the States,  where a few months later John was born. (“I was made in China.”  he’ll tell you.) During… Read More

We were told that we would be changed by our medical training. Our tender idealism would be transformed by long hours and hard work. Read More

Resistance takes courage and commitment, two things I often find that I have a short supply of. But sometimes….even I have limits.   Read More

Post Office Philosopher  Recently two of my out-of-town friends had birthdays and as both are serious readers I thought they’d enjoy a good book I’d just read. So I bought two more copies,  wrapped each for mailing,  and headed to the post office where I found John my favorite postal guy behind the counter, “I’ll… Read More

For me, it was the first decent job I had even though it was only over the Christmas rush. Read More