Why did my parents give me the most popular girl's name of the Fifties? I guess they just liked it.
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Suprise Me
Whisper My Name
Prompted By What's in a Name
/ Stories
Why did my parents give me the most popular girl's name of the Fifties? I guess they just liked it.
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From Sugar to a Shot at Freedom
Prompted By Vaccination
/ Stories
We'd had all the vaccines available at the time ... but this was the only time I refused a vaccine.
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Harmonica Boy — RetroFlash
Prompted By First Memory
/ Stories
Jamaica Plain housing project — age 3, going on 4
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The School Bus
Prompted By First Day of School
/ Stories
I grew up in a three-story apartment building in Palo Alto, California – a rectangular concrete building that still stands at the corner of Grant Avenue and Ash Street. Today, that part of town is crammed full of chic restaurants and expensive condos, but in the 1960s and 70s it was just a little neighborhood, tucked into a…
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My Grandkids Can’t Read my Recipe Cards
Prompted By Cursive — Curse or Blessing?
/ Stories
So why couldn't they read the neatly transcribed directions? Well, because they were written in cursive.
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Bows and Flows of Angel Hair
Prompted By Accessorize, Accessorize
/ Stories
Accessories? I have never been into purses or shoes or hats or scarves. I have bought all those things, of course, but only as needed, not in a collecting kind of way. However, in junior high school, I wore bows in my hair almost every day. My coiffure may not have been the angel hair…
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Trying to work
Prompted By Going to Work
/ Stories
It was clear I needed a job. Turning twenty, literate (two years of college behind me), energetic, and flexible—surely this would not be too hard. But it turned out I knew nothing about finding work.
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After 20 Minutes of Solo Estatic Dancing on My Living Room Floor
Prompted By Gifts
/ Stories
Two of Us
Prompted By Pandemic Holidays
/ Stories
Nobody is coming to our house for Thanksgiving this pandemic year, it's just the two of us.
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Those Were the Days, My Friend
Prompted By Grandparents & Grandchildren
/ Stories
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…
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