See? This is what happens when I a) really need a haircut and b) go to bed with wet hair. Blame it on my mother. She had, in her own words, hair like a horse’s tail. It was thick, coarse, and if she stopped paying attention for a short period of time, it would grow […]
To wave or not to wave
Being polite, walking that shifting line that is somewhere between standoffish and slightly weird, is a tricky business. When I was a teenager, I worked at the local gas station/convenience store for a while. My co-worker Rosetta often entertained the rest of us with stories. One time she told us about her nephew Shelley, who […]
The very special trip to the beach
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 […]
In praise of needlework
When I was in my early teens, my mother made or got hold of a white tablecloth that was covered all over with iron-on patterns of flowers and vegetables. It was big enough that the four of us (my mother, my sisters, and me) could each take a corner to work on simultaneously. I learned […]
The elephant in the pantry
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 […]
The weather gods have a sense of humor
Well, sometimes it does snow in Southeast Alaska, despite what I have been saying these many years. I went out this morning to dig out my mother-in-law’s van, scraping wet-cement-style snow, until my nephew, as kind as he is strong, came from down the street to help. I was scraping as loudly as possible, so […]
The old woman and the mice
“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 […]
Panther’s Corner
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 […]
Snack time
When I was a kid my mother claimed that she could track me around the house by following the discarded cheese wrappers. In those days we classified cheese into two broad categories: mouse cheese (Kraft American cheese, in individually wrapped slices) and rat cheese (cheddar). It was mouse cheese that was my weakness and my […]
You can’t get there from here
Take a look at a map, and ask yourself, “How does a trip from Togiak to Craig, Alaska come to involve a hotel room in Renton, Washington?” It went down like this: I left Togiak on a Friday morning in time to catch my flight out of Dillingham. From there I stayed overnight in Anchorage […]