I don’t remember

I don’t remember the Great Depression. I’m old, but not that old. However, I saw the results in my parents and my friends’ parents attitudes toward money. They bought what they could afford, saved for the future, lived within their means. That notion from a period of hardship was forgotten in the passage of generations [...]

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I remember

I remember dancing to Sarah Vaughn’s “Misty” on a sawdust-covered barroom floor. The song came from a jukebox in an Estes Park tourist joint, a place redolent of stale beer and cigarettes.
The bar was a dive, but the jukebox was a good one and the acoustics in the place were right for music. I don’t [...]

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Hey Sis

Harriet from next door drives me crazy. Every Sunday she tries to convince my kids to go to her church. Finally she lured them there with the promise of a concert after the service from a Christian rock band called Hey Sis. They begged and begged until I agreed to let them go. Surely they [...]

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Nana

She looked about three or four. Clean, carefully dressed. She approached me as I pulled crabgrass from the garden.
“Nana! Nana!” She seemed upset or lost. Did she think I was her nana?
“Hi,” I said. “What’s your name?”
She pulled my arm. “Nana!” She pulled again and I got up and followed her . . .
Please leave [...]

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Papa

He was mom’s third husband. Everybody loved him. We were sure mom finally got it right. My kids called him papa and crawled in his lap as soon as he appeared at our front door. He always had something hidden in his pockets for them.
When Sarah, my oldest, was 8 years old, she stopped climbing [...]

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Mum

“You found the body?” O’Hara asked.
“Yeah.” Looking pale and a bit sick in his green work uniform, the man pointed toward the bleachers. “First thing I saw was a fancy mum. I thought some girl would be real unhappy when she realized she lost her homecoming mum. Then I saw her leg.”
“The officer said you [...]

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The latest edition

I work in a world where it isn’t a first edition that’s important, it’s the latest edition. I just spend $30 on the sixth edition of an HTML & CSS book by Elizabeth Castro. Not only that, I bought the 5 previous editions of this book. I’m not bothered by the fact that web technology [...]

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Bail Out

[Ed.: In honor of the wisdom of the government and the corruption of greed, I'm going to exceed 50 words today with a poem I wrote in the 80s during the S & L bailout while I waited in line for money at a failed S & L.)
Mill in the sun
Or sit in the shade
Wait [...]

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Bums in the Attic

Note: In an homage to Sandra Cisneros and The House on Mango Street, this week every topic will be one of her page titles.
The realtor toured the house. It was clean, well-kept, and would sell. Yet a sheet of plywood was nailed to the ceiling blocking off the entrance to the attic. The realtor said, [...]

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The Earl of Tennessee

Note: In an homage to Sandra Cisneros and The House on Mango Street, this week every topic will be one of her page titles.
Back in those fading days
Days when Ma’am and Sir,
Colonel and Earl, Mr. and Mrs.
Meant something still,
Back when not everybody had a first name
Back in those lost days,
That’s when The Earl of Tennessee
Came [...]

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