In my family, we tend to keep our history right where we can see it. That’s not because we are important, or unusually fixated on the past. We do tend to hold on to things and use them, objects that serve a function—here’s a cast-iron skillet that sizzled a half-century ago under the mastery of […]
Lazy, Annoying Bug
I need an idea, I say to me It’s a lie The truth is they are everywhere Summer gnats boring through screen holes Surreptitiously biting the most tender skin, right at the temple, where I yank my irreverent hair out of my eyes and scratch at my noggin I swat at them weakly, scrawling notes in […]
Hardest questions, toughest moments
Somewhere, far, far away, there lies an obscure stone carved with this universal truth for parents, grandparents, and adult friends: Children will ask life’s hardest questions at the precise moments in which you are least prepared to answer them. Straighten your back, and get ready. And I might scratch on this codicil: the older […]
Live from the Peanut Gallery
“It’s Howdy Doody time!” Shouting that storied response from the Golden Age of early television was the happy chore of a few dozen Boomer kids watching the popular live show from the bleacher seats known as “The Peanut Gallery.” Those lucky devils—who among us didn’t want to be one? — also provided the spontaneous live […]
Endless Opportunity, In the Round
Entertaining children successfully and safely requires, as veterans may have learned the hard way, thoughtful preparation. And a few essential tools. Wait. Scratch that. Sometimes, you might get away with just one tool. It may be the oldest toy known to children, yet it offers new opportunities every time it is clutched by young, […]
Lessons from an Old Dog
My best pal, a shiny, stunning “ginger,” as the British call redheads, is getting white on top. Surely it has happened gradually, but I suddenly noticed it recently, in full force, for the first time. Staring at her across the room for the zillionth time as she dozed in the blissful sleep of the guiltless, I […]