School Daze: They Ain’t What They Used to Be
Flop – flop – floppity – bop bop! That was the sound of grandson Ian’s heavy plastic bag of supplies bouncing off his left leg walking into orientation last week at Mandarin Oaks Elementary School. I didn’t pay too much attention to its contents until I helped him...
Summer on Anchor Road: Sights, Smells & Sounds
"Your life is a poem," says Naomi Shihab Nye. And as the world tilts toward the dog days of summer, that's how I see it too: tiny images of poetry seen through the prism of my childhood, remembering summers in the Longenecker back yard and inside Grandma's...
Drawing on Love: Stored Secrets Come to Light
When we met, Cliff's very first words to me were "Nice to see you again." My quick quip, "Nice to see you again too." But I'm getting ahead of my story. Way ahead . . . * * * During the months of June and July, I published a series of posts about moving from our large...
Give and Take with Cake
“Let them eat cake!” That’s what newly weds and their guests do at wedding receptions. At 9 ½ minutes after three o’clock on August 5, 1967, I fed my groom a huge mouthful of cake, and he returned the favor more gingerly ten seconds later, if the clock on the wall is...
Mother’s Sky View: The Beautiful City
This week two years ago Mother was snatched from our world just five days after her 96th birthday. Late on a Monday evening, July 28, 2014, she was transported into a new and better land. Mother lived on a dairy farm in the Manheim – Lititz area of Pennsylvania. When...
Louisa Adams’ Moving Adventure
Remember the Beverly Hillbillies? The Clampetts strike oil in the Ozarks and move to Beverly Hills in a rags-to-riches sitcom of the 1960s. Of an entirely different era and social class, diarist Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of the 6th American President, John...
His Turn: An Artist Discards, Donates and Discovers
His Turn: An Artist Discards, Donates, and Discovers Truth be told, my husband Cliff would rather not move. Despite the fact it’s getting harder for him to mow our enormous lawn in one fell swoop or scoop up oak leaves by the millions, he would rather stay put. He’s...
A Glorious Fourth, 1909 Style and a Memoir Tip
Would you pass up an invitation to a lawn soirée on a holiday weekend? This week more than 100 years ago my grandma, Miss Fanny Martin, then a single woman, received a penny postcard invitation to such a gathering on July 3, 1909. Mary Elizabeth Kob writes in...
A Rollicking Review: Marie Kondo’s Tidy Book and a Messy View
In last week's post Paring Down and Tidying Up, I referred to Marie Kondo's New York Times best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up. Her book has sold over 5 million copies and is being translated into 40 languages. I promised you a review and here it...
Paring Down, Tidying Up – Some Tips
“Listen to this” I said to Cliff as I began reading the page on sorting papers: “Rule of Thumb – Discard Everything. ” As I continued reading the chapter on sorting papers in Marie Kondo’s New York Times best seller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I saw my...
Secrets of My Blue Madras Dress
Did you wear a madras dress? Did it bleed? Popular in the USA in the 1960s this cool summer fabric originated in Madras, India. Loosely woven cotton threads created a plaid patchwork of soft fabric that didn’t cling to the body during sweltering summer days. Some...
Mouse Moves House and So Do We
We are planning to move. It’s not a long-distance move to another country or across our own land. Not even to another state. And we are not retiring to Florida. Why, we’re already there. And we’re not moving to another city. Our re-location involves a move just 9...
Moments of Extreme Emotion: Where’s My Spyglass?
The photo of a pair of transitions eye glasses attached to a scarlet lanyard is still posted on my Facebook page dated April 14, 2016. “Hubby makes a lanyard for my glasses today. He is not being kind. He just doesn’t want to look for my glasses anymore! . . . well,...
Help! Vintage Photo Needs Caption, II
Every week, The New Yorker magazine features a Cartoon Caption Contest, inviting readers to submit a caption for consideration. After three finalists are chosen, readers vote for the winning caption. You can view my first attempt at a similiar contest here on this...
Baby Beads and Wooden Blocks: Happy Mother’s Day
I played with pastel-colored beads and wooden blocks with ridges, babyhood toys. Mother kept these oblong & round beads and animal-themed alphabet blocks for her grandchildren and great-grands. These sturdy toys entertained children of mothers they nurtured in...
All Creatures Great and Small: The Power of Pets
I missed National Pet Day on April 11 by a few weeks. But if you own a dog like Scotty or a kitty cat named Sophie, every day of the year is pet day. In 4th grade, I drew a cat and colored it charcoal gray. It appears I was as interested in making the wallpaper pretty...
Mom’s Dandelion Recipe & the Passover Seder
“It’s a spring cleaning ritual – but for your body,” touts reporter Jennifer Sheehan, extolling the merits of eating dandelion. “It cleans your blood and you get a lot of good vitamins from it,” another endorsement I read in Sheehan’s article from Lehigh Valley’s The...
What Lights Your Fire?
My mother wore many hats both literally and figuratively. Most of her head coverings were prayer veilings worn every day. As a young woman, her coverings were large, decreasing in size as she got older and church rules had progressively relaxed. Mother wore a...