That’s how I had to answer the phone when Dad was still on active duty in the Air Force. Even my mother did. For his part, when I entered the house in Tucson the night before he died, all he could manage from the bed was a softly croaked “Johnny…” and that was all I [...]
History
Yes, I’m wearing braces. Me and the two youngest are the only ones alive today.
May 12 this year looking out across the Talpa valley
The last time I saw David Ashworth, he’d come up to Chestertown (MD) from Texas unannounced to drop in on old friends. I hadn’t seen him since he divorced Joanie, shut down his pottery studio, and returned to the land of his birth at least ten years before. This time he’d fallen in love for [...]
Projecting thought, new dreams [Note: this piece has been massively revised!]
It wasn’t me that did it. Then again, maybe it was. The forecast called for all-day clouds and highs in the forties. The sky was gray, and I decided to blow off doing laundry. No dryer, so we have to hang it all outside or by the wood stove anyway. Then an hour ago, shazam. [...]
Live the dream, they said. We’ll take up Christmas at another time!
I don’t remember exactly when my mother announced she wasn’t “doing” Christmas or Thanksgiving any more. Probably around the time I went off to my first year of college up in Dallas after we’d all moved to Houston. I do recall her saying that nobody cared. That wasn’t true, because we loved to eat, and [...]
Not a hamster but our Pontiac Vibe three days ago
“Ouch! He bit me!” I thought hamsters were supposed to be cuddly little beasts, but this one was out for blood. I was only ten or eleven at the time, which didn’t help. This was a long, long time ago and I was on my own, a nerdy Air Force brat in Germany. Elvis had [...]
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