As I’ve delved deeper into closets and drawers and boxes, I’ve found all sorts of things. And on a recent visit, I had my daughter go through her belongings to decide what we should save. She is far less sentimental about “things” than I am, and she kept very little. […]
Continue readingTag Archives: mother
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 […]
Continue reading
Memories of Vicks
One scent that brings my childhood to mind is that of Vicks VapoRub. When I was of toddler and preschool age, my mother would bring out the Vicks every time my brother or I had a cold. I used to try to hide my symptoms so she wouldn’t treat me […]
Continue reading
Mary Poppins Returns!
I mentioned in a post a few years back that I saw the Mary Poppins movie in 1965, months after it came out, when it finally arrived in my hometown of Richland, Washington. I was in the fourth grade that year, and I went to the movie in the spring […]
Continue reading
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Silver Bells Where They Belong
I’ve written several posts about my grandfather’s clock, which my parents kept for many years and which I now have in my home. I forgot to wind the clock before I went on a weekend trip this summer, and it ground to a halt while I was away. The chimes […]
Continue reading
A Possible Family Heirloom: The Advent Calendar My Mother Made
On that trip that my mother made to our home in late November or early December 1984, she brought my son a gift she had made herself—an Advent calendar in the shape of a wreath. For those who don’t know, an Advent calendar helps children count the days until Christmas […]
Continue reading
On Stop Signs and Safety in 1969
I’ve written before about my youngest brother learning his alphabet—how we sent him on reconnoitering missions around the card table to find where the Airplane letters were. That was the summer of 1969, shortly before he turned two. By the time little brother’s second birthday rolled around in November 1969, […]
Continue reading
Confession: I Let My Mother Potty-Train My Son
I mentioned in a post several years ago that my mother had potty-trained my son while I took a business trip. It was in November or December 1984, but I always associate the event with Thanksgiving. As I recall, this is how it came to be: We had moved into […]
Continue reading
What’s In a Name? I Found Out in Fourth Grade
My fourth-grade teacher was a rather strict nun whose name I cannot remember. (I think she’d taken the name of two male saints—Sister James Thomas, or something of the sort.) There were forty-eight students in the class, and one of Sister’s first acts in the school year was to declare […]
Continue reading
A Story I Don’t Want To Tell: Piercing My Ears (for National Piercing Day)
I’ve been meaning to write the story of how I came to pierce my ears, though even thinking about it makes me squeamish. I recently learned that May 16 is National Piercing Day, so I have no excuse for further procrastination. It’s time to ’fess up. During the summer I […]
Continue reading