Before we moved into our current home in 2019, I did a lot of cleaning and sorting, which revealed many treasures and trash. But there were many boxes I moved from one house to the next without any review. Some of those were boxes of things from my parents, and […]
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Random Photo: A Kitten in Corvallis
As I looked through the photographs my father digitized, I came across this picture of my brother and me. I’ve seen it many times before, but this time I noticed my brother is holding a kitten. I’m pretty sure this is the cat we owned in Corvallis, Oregon. We don’t […]
Continue readingNot So Random Photos: An August Trip Down Memory Lane
I’ve written many times about Pacific Grove and Carmel, California, and other venues on the Monterey Peninsula. But for decades I didn’t visit that idyllic place in my past. My grandmother moved away from Pacific Grove in the summer of 1967. My husband and I went there once or twice […]
Continue readingNostalgia for Happier Times: Visits to Carmel
My OneDrive memories feed sends me pictures I’ve taken in prior years on that date. Lately, it has been sending me pictures of trips I took to Carmel, California, with my parents. Lovely pictures of happier times. My parents honeymooned in Carmel in 1955 and loved the location. Periodically, they […]
Continue readingOn Pools and Lakes in the Summertime
This summer, our outdoor activities might be limited because of the pandemic. When I was a teenager, as soon as the school year was over, we spent a lot of time by the water. I’ve written about Coeur d’Alene Lake many times on this blog. But there were also swimming […]
Continue readingHigh School Graduations Through Two Generations
Recently, a relative sent my husband a picture of his high school graduation day. I’d never seen this photo before. My husband is the tall young man in the red robe—the color of the Marshall High School Owls. He graduated in 1967—more than fifty years ago. My husband probably thought […]
Continue readingFive Years Without a Sky Above Me
My father died five years ago yesterday, on January 5, 2015. His death was sudden—I’d spoken to him the day before, and I’d had emails from him that morning. My brother talked to him that evening as our dad decided to go to the hospital because of some abdominal pain. […]
Continue readingMemories of Childhood Fourth of July Celebrations
I don’t remember too much about Independence Day celebrations when I was a kid. I’ve written about the flags someone gave my brother and me when I was about seven, and the trauma that our misuse of those flags caused me. That year, the Fourth of July was more problem […]
Continue readingWhen Lightning Struck
A lot goes on in our family in May. Our daughter’s birthday. Mother’s Day. And, in years past, there was often a graduation or First Communion or Confirmation thrown in as well. My parents tried to visit in May to celebrate one or more of these occasions—they preferred May travel […]
Continue readingDeadline: Epiphany, The Twelfth Day of Christmas
In my family growing up, the tradition was to take down the Christmas tree before New Year’s Day. My mother said it was bad luck to keep the tree up any longer. I think her real reason was that she was allergic to evergreens and wanted the scent out of […]
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