Did You Know Alexa Can Read Kindle Books?

A few months ago, I installed several Amazon Alexa devices to make our home “smart”. We have Google Pixel phones, so maybe I should have installed Google Nest devices, but Amazon offered a good deal on some Alexa Echo Dot and Echo Show devices, so I bought those. We are […]

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Perfect Christmases

When I think of my childhood Christmases, I think of going to my grandparents’ home in Klamath Falls, Oregon. They moved out of that house when I was six or seven, and some of my earliest Christmases were spent at my home rather than traveling to my grandparents’ house. So […]

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My Mother’s Dish Towels

Before I married in November 1977, my mother gave me six dish towels. “Here,” she said. “I received a dozen of these when I was married, and I want you to have some.” She and my father married in June 1955. The towels had had some use, but I think […]

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Grocery Deliveries Long Before the Pandemic

My parents had a stroller for me when I was an infant. I don’t remember riding in the seat, but there is a picture to prove that I did. Once my brother came along, he got the seat, and I was relegated to standing on the back of the stroller. […]

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“Where’s That Baby?” and Other Memories

As readers of this blog know, I was very close to my maternal grandmother, my Nannie Winnie. I always believed she thought I was pretty special as well—after all, I was her oldest grandchild. I knew she loved all my siblings, and I didn’t think I was any higher in […]

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Mrs. Birdsong’s Bell Pull

My husband and I are starting to think about what to hang on the walls in our new house. Before we moved, our daughter told me, “Mother, if you don’t hang your pictures within a week after you move, you’ll never do it.” I disagreed with her then, and I […]

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On Shells and Rocks

I’ve always been fascinated by seashells. I think it goes along with my love of beaches. When I visit beaches, I spend half my time staring at the sand looking for shells. After most coastal vacations I bring back a small baggie containing a few shells. Often they are imperfect, […]

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Learning to Type

I wrote recently about my 8th-grade graduation in June 1999 and my parents’ absence for that event. Their absence, and in particular my mother’s inability to drive me places, caused me further consternation that summer. I had decided to enroll in a summer school class on typing at the high […]

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