My earliest experiences with waiting rooms were rather non-existent. That is to say, at 3, my parents rushed me to the ER when my pinky finger was tightly lodged in the fold of a folding chair. I remember the extraordinary pain and leaving with a splint on the finger. If I waited, I know it…
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Suprise Me
Waiting Rooms
Prompted By Waiting Rooms
/ Stories
My earliest experiences with waiting rooms were rather non-existent. That is to say, at 3, my parents rushed me to the ER when my pinky finger was tightly lodged in the fold of a folding chair. I remember the extraordinary pain and leaving with a splint on the finger. If I waited, I know it…
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Gee Whiz
Prompted By One Song That Moves Me
/ Stories
It’s pretty much impossible to pick just one song so I’ve zeroed in on the very first song that moved me: All I Have To Do is Dream by the Everly Brothers. When the song was released in 1958, I was 11 years old. I wouldn’t have the pleasure of my first kiss for another…
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Requiem for a Teacher
Prompted By Teachers & Mentors
/ Stories
Wesley was an important figure to me at a time when I felt excited, scared, adventurous, and doubtful. He read my words, praised me, and called me out. I felt appreciated and challenged by him.
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Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
Prompted By Cheating
/ Stories
I don’t know if I’ve cheated at cards. I never progressed much beyond ‘go fish’ and blackjack with the deck of fifty-two. I can’t remember if I ever kept excessive change dealt out by a storekeeper. I found $400 dollars in tightly rolled bills in a baking soda can, stashed in the demolished darkroom of…
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First Grade, First Day
Prompted By First Day of School
/ Stories
Moon Reflections
Prompted By Moon Landing
/ Stories
The moon has a spell-binding hold on our collective imagination and never more-so than the summer of 1969. That summer was my sixth and last summer as a camper at the National Music Camp (now Interlochen Arts Camp) in Interlochen, MI, the granddaddy of fine arts camps, set in a pine forest between two lakes…
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Word Games
Prompted By Games People Play
/ Stories
This time I was prepared. I knew what they wanted: not only smarts, but big energy, personality plus.
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“Maawidge…is a Sake-wid Institution…”
Prompted By Ceremony
/ Stories
No one had ever gotten married at the station before.
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Just Love Them
Prompted By I Swore I'd Never
/ Stories
I am going to turn this prompt on its head. Rather than discuss something I saw a parent do that I swore I’d never do, then did, I’d like to give two examples of behaviors from the older generation that I found offensive and I DID NOT do, guided by advise from my father, which…
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The End of the World, part two
Prompted By 9/11 Twenty Years Later
/ Stories
In the last eighteen months, there have been so many tragedies that I couldn't even say which was the worst.
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