November is National Family Stories Month. So we should tell our stories to family and friends. Stories make us who we are. Or sometimes we hope stories don’t influence our lives. Here’s a story I have mentioned before, and it is one I’m glad had no lasting impact. The story […]
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Happy Short Girl Appreciation Day To Me
December 21 is Short Girl Appreciation Day. I am a short girl—5’1” in my stocking feet. So I hope to be appreciated today. In Catholic school, we frequently lined up by height. I was always one of the shortest girls in my class in school. Of course, I was a […]
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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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COVID-19: What A Difference A Week Makes
Today is Wednesday, March 18. As of last Wednesday, March 11, my children and their cousins were all scheduled to fly to Kansas City this week for a meeting this coming weekend about family farmland. As of Thursday, March 12, we cancelled their trip. Why the change in plans? Coronavirus. […]
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A Confession on My Sister’s Birthday
I often try to post about family members when their birthdays come around. Well, today is my sister’s birthday, so it is her turn. But I find I have already written about most of the memorable moments in our relationship (at least, the most memorable from my perspective). So, instead, […]
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No March Madness Anymore
I was perhaps programmed from early childhood to work for Hallmark Cards, which I did for 27 years. When I was growing up, my mother made a big deal of celebrating birthdays. She sent cards on every holiday and on innumerable birthdays of relatives and friends. She mailed several greeting […]
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A Not So Random Photo: My Parents’ 20th Anniversary
On June 25, 1975, for my parents’ twentieth anniversary, I gave them a photographer’s sitting to have a family portrait made. It was the first time we had had a formal family picture taken, and, except for later weddings, the only formal portrait I can recall. The sitting cost me […]
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Another Treasure: Photo of My Husband’s Relatives, 1950
Last summer when I cleaned out a cupboard, I found some treasures. One treasure was a picture of my husband’s parents, paternal grandparents, aunt and uncle from the Marshall Democrat-News. The picture was republished in the January 24, 1989, edition of that local newspaper. I found it in an envelope […]
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Memorial Day Means More as I Age
As I reviewed old posts, I realized I haven’t written much about Memorial Day. That’s because it was never a big occasion in my family growing up. We were new transplants to Richland, Washington, and didn’t have old relatives buried in the local cemetery. My grandparents were also the first […]
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