Category: memoir
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Baby Boom Déjà vu and the Future
As a member of the baby boomer generation, I was an infant in Mom’s arms in the early 1950s when babies ruled the world – at least in the United States. My parents moved to a new house in a new suburb on Long Island, New York, in 1952. Every house sheltered a twenty- or…
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WINTER WONDERLAND YESTERDAY AND TODAY
“Daddy, can we go outside?” Sydney pleads for the hundredth time. “Can’t we go outside? I wanna play in the snow. I wanna ride my sled.” After numerous “no’s,” Dad finally relents, “OK, let’s go out!” Sydney runs over and pulls on Grandma’s sweater. “Gramma, Gramma, you come too?” Grandma rolls her eyes and responds…
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Bridging the Times from Generation to Generation
I was ten years old when Uncle Ed died. His wife, my Aunt Jean, was Grandma Rose’s sister. My grandfather helped Aunt Jean sort out her life and move on after Uncle Ed passed. Grandpa sat at his dining room table, papers strewn everywhere, working on Aunt Jean’s stuff. Aunt Jean had never written a…
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A Baby Boomer’s Musings on Her Life
Many baby boomers who grew up during the 1960s have exciting stories to tell about their sex life, their drug escapades, their Woodstock experience, their protest days. Not me. I can tell you what I did not do: I did not experiment with drugs. Drugs do not like my body. In my early 20s I…
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Memories in Boxes and Shopping Bags
Photo albums and high school yearbook My sister walked in my house this week laden with boxes and shopping bags full of stuff. Classify the stuff collectables, mementos, souvenirs, or what the items actually are – a life’s legacy. Pictures, most of them photos in frames, costume jewelry, photo albums, plaques, and miscellaneous, uncategorized items.…
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Happy Birthday Dad
Disclosure: This post rambles from birthday memories to historical tidbits, then current political division. When a kid, June 14th meant cake, ice cream, and an enthusiastic, loud rendition in my family’s discordant, cacophonous voice of Happy Birthday. No one in my family could carry a tune, obviously an inherited deficiency. But we all loved our cake…
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Goodbye Mom
My Mom passed away this week at the age of 100. Here are some memories I shared at her funeral. Rose Mandel and Sam Shilowitz welcomed baby girl Elyss Shirley on January 2, 1925. Her father Sam bought a two-story building on Main Street in Cedarhurst, Long Island, and opened a general store. The family…
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An Almost Disastrous 1979 Event Remembered
My family moved into our new home in southcentral Pennsylvania one day after a snowstorm in February 1979. Me, my husband Steve and our two sons – three-year-old Matthew and one-year-old Jason – had barely settled in when upheaval temporarily disrupted our lives. The historic episode that placed my family and community in danger began…
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A Very White Wedding Day
The hype before Valentine’s Day seems to increase and last longer each year. Or maybe it is simply my imagination. The cold and snowy weather this year brought back memories of the winter weather over my wedding weekend. I was not married on Valentine’s Day, but a week later… Engaged my junior year in college,…
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Family and Community Thanksgiving Traditions
Families have their holiday customs. For years our family observed a tradition my sons are thrilled not to continue. The Gathering of the Leaves A lot of trees covered our property. Mature trees with leaves, the kind that sail to earth in the autumn. We never invested in a leaf blower. Why waste the money…