I’ve never lost the excitement as summer approaches. I’m reminded of the feeling I had when the school year was coming to a close and summer vacation was at hand. The excitement from all the kids in my school was palpable. This time of year also reminds me of an event that encompassed spitballs. Spitballs […]
I was out enjoying the day with some friends. It was a gorgeous day and we were very much delighting in each other’s company. The conversations and general banter were light and fun. As it often happens in these situations, we shared stories about our past and their significance to each other. Somewhere in our […]
Have you ever had a lucky coin or good luck charm? Do you remember why you felt it was lucky or special? Rebecca (Becca) Thompson from “Take Charge Now” has a wonderful tale about her son, a tooth fairy and a lucky coin…
It was a very cold December, but that certainly didn’t dampen my 11-year-old spirits with Christmas fast approaching. Even so, I was not as happy as I should have been but let me back up a bit…
I was around ten. It was that time of year when all my mom’s family would gather at my grandmother’s farm. The farm was at the foothills of the mountains. Every so often there would be a black car that would pass the farmhouse continuing up into the mountains…
I was around four years old. My mother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse way up in the hill country. Every so often Mom would take me along for the day. The schoolhouse was old, but a sturdy little building with a potbelly stove in the center of the room to heat the schoolhouse in the winter…
My grandmother’s house was old and well loved. The only running water that went to the house was in the kitchen. It was feed from the springhouse that was quite a distance from the house. The water came from an old-fashioned pump in the kitchen that set on a very large kitchen basin.
I was just five and was proud of the fact that I was a big girl. I hadn’t yet run into the prejudice that would accompany my large coke bottle bottom glass and a disability that had yet to show itself. I was a happy child. My home and family were the center of my universe…
Strange things happen to you when you’re a kid. At least they were to me at 5 years old. My sad kitty tale was an event we talked about for years after. My family lived in a small house, in a very modest neighborhood. We were a young family comprised of my dad, mom, my middle brother and one on the way. The house was very old but well kept. A coal-burning furnace heated our house…