Stories on life in Powhatan, Virginia, past and present
The wisteria is climbing the kitchen door; I pull it down, but it keeps looking for a new angle. It was such a long time ago that Laura and I Painted the trellis for that vine–it was just Beginning to grow, and the flowers smelled so sweet. Summer lasted forever in those days, and I […]
Who among us, even the rankest of existentialists, does not occasionally ponder the supernatural? While I have had plenty of experiences that seemed ghostly, most have had an explanation that stands up to daylight scrutiny. Scene: I have just finished watching some TV show about Dracula. I am eight years old and scared to go […]
While we’re on the subject of things my father used to like to say, here’s another: he was, to his estimation, “the littlest human” to graduate with his high school class. Five-foot-nothing and 93 pounds wringing wet. I will point out that he was sixteen at the time, and that later he grew to be […]
I suppose we all have our culinary Achilles’ heels. For sister Mary, it was wheat, due to an actual allergy. Being the youngest, I have hazy impressions of certain things that are no doubt much clearer to my sisters. One such example is my childhood impression of “cereal,” which I always equated with “Rice Krispies,” […]
When I was a child, I didn’t mention a sore throat to my mother unless said throat was really, really sore. This is because of the magnificent procedure she had adopted in treating such maladies. This approach was known colloquially as “painting your throat.” Step one: get a right-sized twig off the forsythia bush out […]
In the early 1970’s my parents paid three hundred dollars for a 1967 Chevrolet Impala. This “impala” was a great growling beast of a four-door sedan. My father took one look at it and christened it the Warthog, explaining that this was a much more apt description of its basic properties. Among its many physical […]
I made many trips to the beach as a child, but this story is not about that. This story is about a book I wrote in third grade. I found that book in my little house in Virginia during my last trip down there. I had written it with the most loving care imaginable. My […]
One summer afternoon, circa 1973, my childhood friend Alice came over to visit. Nobody else was around, and we got bored. We rummaged around in some desk drawers and closets, looking for something interesting to do. We eventually came across some boxes of acrylic paint and brushes. So far so good. However, we didn’t have […]
“Dibs on that mouse!” said our mother. My sisters and I were negotiating with her over a new Christmas coloring book that her sister, Aunt Kathy, had sent to us all. Said mouse was snuggled under a huge quilt, fast asleep, wearing an old-fashioned nightcap. We girls colored a lot of the pages, but we […]
It is easy to forget that horses are prey animals, since they regularly allow dangerous mammals to scramble onto their backs and start giving orders. Side note: I recently saw a meme of a horse with forward-facing, predator eyes, and the vision was unsettling in the extreme. But the equine family never entirely forgets its […]