It has been my life long dream to become a best selling author with my name prominently listed on The New York Times Best Sellers List. While I have not yet achieved my lofty goal, mainly because unlike my author friend, Susanne Bacon, I have never written a book, I do take great pride in […]
Lakewood
Letter: A tribute to foster parents, and those who parent on purpose
It was a great national crisis, a most critical moment in their entire history. While the individual who stood at the crossroads – faced with a desperate choice, with destiny or destruction dependent on their decision – would receive the preponderance of accolades, it was their foster parent, the one who raised them, who had […]
Across the Fence: All Tastes German
Have you ever tasted an authentic German meal – maybe at a German-American household or even over in Germany when you lived or vacationed there? Do you miss the experience? And is one of the bleakest thoughts you have these days that you can neither travel there nor experience as much as a German Oktoberfest […]
Letter: Play-by play, baseball is life
On this date, August 15, eight years ago, a friend of mine on Facebook alerted all within his circle of influence that history was very possibly in the making. Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners ace, was three outs away from a no-hitter. “Tune in for the top of the ninth!” Our son, then residing two hours […]
Across the Fence: A Flowering Mission
Have you ever found something that was approximately 50 million years old, thus just a bit younger than the last dinosaurs, and you were permitted to keep it? Exactly that happened to my husband and me very recently when we were exploring the quaint town of Republic, Washington. For it is the home of a […]
Letter: The cornerpost
We couldn’t understand where we went wrong. The gap between the ground and the bottom of the fence boards was, with every picket, incrementally increasing. And then there was the sidewalk side that was, for every foot, imperceptably sloping. How to align the two and still get to where we wanted to go? Finally, after […]
Across the Fence: Telling Names
“Oh, I LOVE your name!” is only one of these comments I usually get when somebody checks my ID. Yes, it gets boring – none is original. And, no, they are so wrong because our family name derives from the Norman word “bacco”, which means “warrior”. My maiden name is another instance for a job, […]
Letter: It’s titled “Forever Young” but we’re not are we
Endless summer days; picnics in the park; the annual parent (unbeaten) vs. child shortened-base-paths (for the parent’s benefit) baseball game; the first ‘whopper’ photo-op at but three years of age. They – and us along with them – grow up. Too fast. Somehow, too fast. Leaf-filtered morning sunshine gives way to the dying, but colorful, […]
Westside Story – Plagiarized By Joe Boyle
I wish I could write stories like this. I have to be honest. I would be guilty of plagiarism if I suggested this work was mine. My pal, Howard, who hangs out on the East Coast, sent it to me. Stolen material: RETIREE’S LAST TRIP TO KROGER’S Yesterday I was at my local Kroger’s buying […]