Category: nonfiction
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Escape to Calmness?
A six hour flight from home left me tired but excited to begin my new adventure. I missed travel. I missed meeting new people, viewing new sites, tasting different foods, and simply walking around a different environment. I missed the variety. I missed the change. And I needed the diversion. Travel is escapism. I am…
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A Mexican Carnaval Cavalcade
I have temporarily escaped the wintry weather at home to enjoy a warmer climate in the mountains of Mexico. The groups of Mexicans milling about puzzled me. Were they waiting for a bus? But there were too many, and as I maneuvered jam-packed sidewalks, I figured out this was more than a casual Sunday afternoon…
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Pomp and Pageantry Past 60
A friend passed recently. One memorable story about her recalls participation in the following event. I had never viewed a live beauty contest until a friend participated in the Ms New Jersey Senior America Pageant. I watched numerous Miss America broadcasts over the years, but could not relate. I am not now, and never was,…
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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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Hanging Out With Old Friends
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson One evening four couples reunited at a restaurant to revel in friendships, relish a temporary respite from grandkids, and celebrate birthdays. Because of busy calendars and homes geographically dispersed, time between get-togethers sometimes…
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Good Intentions Trigger Turmoil
Life is supposed to get simpler as one ages. In that spirit my husband and I decided to simplify our lives. We would sell our house and move into an apartment. We have bought and sold properties in the past, first as newlyweds, then sharing the experience with toddlers, then school-age kids, as a couple…
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DJT’s Infamous Administration Still Here, Still Causing Chaos
The United States of America is shattering before our eyes. Under the leadership of one individual, with the support, encouragement, and instigation of a group of anti-democratic-Americans, the rules, regulations, laws, traditions, even the physical embodiments of American life are being destroyed as they reject, distort, and dissolve our constitutional, communal, and cultural heritage. The…
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Up Close and Personal With My Nose
“You have hair in your nose, Grandma.” Thank you now-disinherited seven-year-old granddaughter. There are parts of the body that, although always with us, we pay little attention. For instance my ears, imbedded on either side of my head, are forever with me. Sometimes I stick a pair of earrings in them. Most of the time…
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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.…