I have noticed that a particular word often invokes a whole scene. That scene could be from childhood or from a different period in my life. Stripes I see stripes everywhere. Rain running down a window pane, shadows elongating in a courtyard. Streams of water running down high mountains as in Pikes Peak High and …
My people – Bob sunlight filters warmthinto the library windowswhile Bob workswith tiny brown leavesplaces themon small white paperslines up the leaves rolls all the leavesinto a tubemy five year old selfmesmerizedMy favorite parthe licks his tongueon the white paperso it all stays together The tubes aremy fingers’ size he make the tubesover and overI …
Coming home from school was a bit of an adventure. Kenwood School was on Dorchester Avenue on the South Side of Chicago. The best part of walking home was going by St Paul’s Episcopal Church where I was in the girls’ choir. Mr. Rayfield was the choir director and also a piano teacher. He was …
Dining Room 1940s The Dining Room The dining room was the hub of activity for our house. Big dinners were everyday occurrences. By this time Ted and Jean Bloch had arrived to stay two weeks–that was a month ago. Jean and my mother worked things out well in the kitchen. I loved being in the …
Oh, it has fallen right in that pile of wet leaves. It’s fragments of some old paper. Maybe tissue paper. Whose is it? Wait, it is a letter from Christmas past. No, that is not possible. Pasts don’t write letters. But letters write pasts. Some of the words are obliterated. . . . It looks …
“You ain’t been blue” is how it starts. I recall as a teenager playing that record (a disk with grooves that when encountered with a special needle produced sound) over and over again. I would dance and dance around the room singing with the music, getting dizzy and singing louder each time it played. But …
My grandmother and her two sisters lived in the small town of Beulah, Colorado. Nora Annie England Challinor Thomson was an intellectual, talented woman who was always positive. She had a deep sense of caring for all people. My grandmother was dignified, had a keen interest in history, played the piano and loved to …
The Family Expands “Tommy, Mother has gone to the hospital. Soon we will have a new baby in the family. Maybe even tonight.” “I hope it is a boy.” said my five-year old brother, Tommy. “Someone I can play ball with.” “I want a sister. Yes, I think it should be a baby sister. I …
Dining Room 1940s The Dining Room The dining room was the hub of activity for our house. Big dinners were everyday occurrences. By this time Ted and Jean Bloch had arrived to stay two weeks–that was a month ago. Jean and my mother worked things out well in the kitchen. I loved being in the …