Suprise Me

El Año de los Muertos by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Lessons

/ Stories

Some say death can be your ally. Yeah, maybe… If you’re an Inuit shaman or a Yoruba priestess. Some days I can dig it. Mostly I doubt that death teaches us anything. Today marks the year-one anniversary of ZL’s death. I first met Z when she ran into a theater rehearsal and shouted “they’re gonna…
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With This Ring by
200
(346 Stories)

Prompted By Lost and Found

/ Stories

With This Ring I’m not superstitious or especially sentimental,  and that’s a good thing because over the years I’ve lost some precious pieces of jewelry –  two or three watches,  innumerable earrings,  and even a few wedding rings. When we married my husband gave me a simple band – not of gold or silver but…
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The Car That Smelled Like California by
50
(88 Stories)

Prompted By My First Car

/ Stories

The case of wine slid across the carpet and the bottles fell out. With a crash, one broke.
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Some “thens” I don’t miss by
100
(194 Stories)

/ Stories

I am nostalgic for many things but not all.  Here is a quick take on some of the items from the 50s and 60s I don’t miss. Women’s clothing:  Panty girdles, with their tourniquet-like grip on my thighs. I’ll spare folks the details of feminine hygiene products and accessories of the 60s, but suffice it…
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Tianjin Daughter by (4 Stories)

Prompted By Genealogy

/ Stories

"My grandfather acquired my grandmother in 1912, in Tianjin, Northern China. He named her Esther. I don’t know what she was called before."
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Enter Stage Left: The Geek by
5
(7 Stories)

Prompted By What We Wore

/ Stories

In the 70’s, we didn’t have cell phones (of any kind!).  There was no Internet.  A computer was something largely out of science fiction, or something you might use at NASA and if so, it was large, expensive, and had the processing power of your (non-Apple) digital watch today. I remember playing a lot of…
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Scared on the North Side by
200
(359 Stories)

Prompted By Close Calls

/ Stories

During my 16 months in Chicago in the late ’70s, I lived in a structure known as a “4+1”, as it had parking under the building, then four floors of apartments above, on the north side of Chicago, off of Sheridan near Lake Michigan. The building was H-shaped and I lived all the way at…
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School Day Lunch by
5
(7 Stories)

Prompted By What We Ate

/ Stories

There were three possible lunches on school days: regular lunchbox lunch; rainy day lunch; and lunch at home. On regular days, I opened my metal lunchbox (blue lid and bottom, silver-gray between) to find a sandwich neatly wrapped in waxed paper, made with stiff, dense, brown whole wheat bread. It might be peanut butter, or…
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What a Cute Kid by
10
(18 Stories)

Prompted By Temptation

/ Stories

This is about another person’s temptation, a very little person. I was getting some provisions in between snowstorms and was riding up and down the aisles of a large grocery store in one of those electric carts. I had paused to read some labels. Around the corner in front of me come a mom and…
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Wise Children by
100
(141 Stories)

/ Stories

The desire and frustration built up
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