Today is Labor Day, the traditional last day of summer vacation. Though in recent years, as school seemed to begin earlier and earlier in August, the significance of Labor Day has diminished. We all have “back to school” memories. Maybe of our own first days of school—kindergarten, junior high, high […]
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Langley Returns
My daughter is visiting at the moment, and she brought her dog Langley. I am delighted to see them both, of course. As I have written before, I like other people’s dogs. I’m just glad not to have one myself. Yesterday, my daughter and husband went to see relatives in […]
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Back To Work Thirty-Five Years Ago: I Couldn’t Have It All
In August 1985, thirty-five years ago this month, I returned to work after my second (and last) maternity leave. I’d left the office unexpectedly in mid-May, a week earlier than anticipated, when my daughter decided to come into the world two and a half weeks early. I enjoyed my first […]
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Working in My Mother’s Garden
I wrote last week that I am not an outdoorsy person. Perhaps that’s because some of my early experiences outdoors were unpleasant. I remember many unsavory tasks in my mother’s garden during my childhood summers. Mother had a few flower beds around the house that we moved into when I […]
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Firing the Babysitter
One summer day about 38 years ago today, I thought my career would come to a crashing halt. We had to fire the babysitter. Our son—our first child—was five and a half months old. I’d gone back to work when he was three months old, and my husband and I […]
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Stories I Couldn’t Tell Before: I Had to Marry To Get a Car
There are disadvantages to being the oldest child. Although the theory is that oldest children get more of their parents’ attention, this isn’t always something kids relish. And sometimes being the first kid to raise certain issues means parents haven’t thought through their responses yet. In my case, I remember […]
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Drive-In Movies
I’ve probably been to drive-in movies less than ten times in my entire life. But they have made an impression on me. Not for what movies we watched (other than Ghostbusters, I don’t even remember which movies I saw at a drive-in), but because of the experience. My parents took […]
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I Am Tired of Cooking
Occasionally on this blog, I have posted some of my favorite recipes. Readers will intuit pretty quickly that these are easy recipes. And my modifications to the original recipes make them easier yet. I do not like to cook. I have never liked to cook. Not since my brother wrecked […]
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Lake o’ the Woods
This is another post about lakes. Throughout my life I have vacationed on many lakes, most notably Coeur d’Alene Lake and Priest Lake in Idaho, Lake of the Ozarks and Table Rock Lake in Missouri, the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, and the Door County peninsula on Lake […]
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I Wore a Skirt to Santa’s Village, But I Wouldn’t Wear One Now
When my brother and I visited our grandparents in Pacific Grove, California, they always took us on a day trip to Santa’s Village outside Santa Cruz. Santa’s Village was a miniature Disneyland with a Christmas theme. Even though it was the middle of summer, we could sit on Santa’s lap […]
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