My father wore a belt. I assume its purpose was to hold up his pants, but the belt had a much larger significance in my little mind, because it represented potential punishment. Both of my parents referred to this belt as The Strap, and in a strange way it seemed to be a permanent part […]
November 10, 2010
In a recent post, shoreacres wrote about her father and the long-ago influence he had on her views about rights, responsibilities, and what it means to be a citizen in a democratic society. Her wonderful essay got me thinking, again, about my own father. For many years, I had been unfair in my memories of […]
September 3, 2010
The block where we lived was mostly three-story brick buildings and concrete driveways. Right in front of our house was an opening in the sidewalk, a square measuring about two feet by two feet that must have once been home to a tree. I would play in the dirt that filled that square, sometimes for […]
August 3, 2010
Humans are forever trying to explain what they see, to look at some object or condition and figure out what actions produced that result. It’s called Cause & Effect, and we use it all the time in just about every area of life. We plant five rose bushes. Three of them do really well, one […]
July 10, 2010
I love history, partly because I enjoy seeing how people lived long ago. I’ve visited dozens of mansions, homesteads, and estates, as well as simpler homes, taking the guided tour whenever one is offered. I pay special attention to the descriptions of the kitchen, of all the related jobs and how they were done. You […]
June 12, 2010
Have you ever compared photographs of the same person, taken fifteen or twenty years apart, and wondered what in the world happened? How could someone look so different because of a few passing years? Why do people age so dramatically? The answer is simple: they had children. We have two daughters, who are now in […]
January 4, 2011
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