I don’t remember

All those years of teaching reduced my former students to a blur. I don’t remember most of the names—names disappeared with years. I remember the faces, the incidents. I remember the ones with a gift for writing. Of all the kids I encouraged to become writers, I wonder if any of them did?
Please leave a [...]

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Cucumbers

Brownie, the mostly terrier mutt in our lives, loves cucumbers. No cucumber in the garden is safe from her inquisitive teeth. When the cuc reaches about 4 or 5 inches in length, Brownie goes for it. She’s very selective. She’s a sampler: she never takes more than one bite from any cuc. This year our [...]

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Mashed Potatoes

Grandma always mashed the potatoes while Mom made the gravy. These two events signaled that soon we could eat after hours of being tormented by the aroma of cooking food. Meals were a big project in those days and the anticipation was part of the experience.
But when we ate at Grandma’s she made the gravy. [...]

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The Ice Cream Man

“Five Dreamsicles,” she said. She extended a twenty to the ice cream man. A stream of newly arrived youngsters jostled behind her. She turned around and looked into their faces. Bright eyes, eager smiles. She turned back and said, “I’ll buy a round for everyone today. Keep the total running till they are all gone.” [...]

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Dumpling

Both grandkids had fingers covered with gooey dough–not to belittle my daughter’s cooking, but I suspect it was Bisquick–that would become dumplings. They ran to say hello and I held off the hugs but gave them both a kiss on the cheek.
“We’re cooking,” Hanna announced.
I grinned at Suz, my daughter, and peered into a large [...]

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New Orleans

I hate jobs that take me outside during the heat in New Orleans, but I have one today. I  followed a famous musician, hoping to catch him at something his wife could use in a divorce. She didn’t know if he was doing anything–she was just hoping I’d find something. I hate jobs like that [...]

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Gallup

Dry, sun-bleached Gallup, New Mexico wasn’t often on anyone’s list of places to go. Maybe nut-cases determined to drive Route 66. But it was Doug’s top destination. He bought Native American jewelry, turquoise mostly, and took it back east to sell at 5000% markups.
He never stayed in the same motel twice, and he never used [...]

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Santa Catalina

When they broke out of the bank of smog clinging to the coast around LA, Sara went to the front of the launch. She stood in the clear air, a wind-blown figurehead. Santa Catalina loomed ahead like Shangra La, a sparkling gem. She tried not to think about what she’d left behind in her hasty [...]

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Memphis

We drove toward Memphis at 85 mph. This fool driver was giving me a nervous breakdown, but it had been a bad day for hitching and I wasn’t about to ask to be let out. When we finally got inside the city limits I told him I wanted out at a gas station/food mart. I [...]

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Lips

I learned to read his mood from his lips. When he looked at me at dinner–eyes cast up from under lowered eyebrows–and licked his lips, I knew what he was thinking.
I couldn’t eat when he did that. I could only think of ways to escape. There was no escape. My mom made sit there until [...]

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