Recently I started growing lettuce in window boxes. Now, of course I could put together a garden box or a greenhouse, or both, and grow my lettuce that way. But here’s the thing. I am too lazy to go outside to pick my lettuce. Actually, I am trying to set things up so that I […]
Here’s to you, Eddie Robinson
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 […]
Point it straight
As my sister Laura mentioned, “Point it straight” was another thing our dad liked to say. He would pull out this old saw when one of us was heading out behind the wheel of a car (to my mind, that car was usually the Warthog (see an earlier post), in which case he had reason […]
“Gimme them keys, boy!”
Some months ago, in Ketchikan, a 92-year-old driver struck and killed a woman in a crosswalk. The state’s consequences for the driver were to rescind his driver’s license. What, I wonder, have been the extent of the natural consequences for him and his family? Somewhere, somebody is thinking, if only I had taken Dad’s keys […]
“I gave you the grouse!”
Soon after my husband and I met, he brought me a feisty calico kitten, who grew up to be a feisty calico cat. One summer, we worked at a tree nursery/landscaping business, and we stayed on site in a small pickup bed camper. More than once I found birds in various stages of disassembly. One […]
Mother’s Day
This picture shows me sitting in the family cemetery at Judes Ferry. The date is January 21, 2018, just after we had buried my father. To the right of that fresh patch of red clay is my mother, buried in October of 1994. Further still to the right is my baby brother, born and buried […]
Pay attention. . .on purpose. . .to this moment. . .right now
I brought this phrase home with me today from a presentation on mindfulness that I otherwise half-listened to. It reminded me of a moment when I was about fourteen. I was walking up that part of the driveway that we called the Gray Hill (couldn’t tell you why, as it was all red clay). It […]
Adventures in making toast
When I was a kid we had this old propane stove that worked fine, albeit without the benefit of pilot lights. Starting the burners was no big deal; you just held a match alongside while turning on the gas. The oven/broiler was a horse of a different color. You had to open the broiler drawer, […]
Ewww, gross!
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,” […]