Several days before my eighth birthday I rode my bike into the path of a car on A1A. Riding my bike on A1A was strictly forbidden and as I swerved to avoid the car, I fell and broke my arm knowing that my parents were going to kill me.
It is easy to forget just how cold a home in Fort Lauderdale could get 50 years ago. My childhood home had floor-to-ceiling jalousie windows, which were only marginally more airtight than a screen, in every room and no heater. We shivered and froze through many a cold snap until January of 1968 when it
My mother attended a Catholic girls’ school during the Depression, and the nuns emphasized the importance of frugality. These early lessons made an impression on Mom, and until the end of her days she always loved a bargain. She clipped coupons and waited for sales and read the Sunday newspaper looking for specials.
One of my Millennial coworkers recently resigned to move her young family to the green and leafy Chicago suburbs. “I can’t raise my kids here,” she told me. “There’s too much crime.”
The gardenia bush next to the screened porch was planted when the house was built in 1959. When we bought the house, the gardenia, after years of neglect, was an eyesore, devoid of foliage; we were going to remove it but my mom convinced me not to. “All it needs is some water and fertilizer,”
When I was eight I decided to run away from home and live with my grandmother where, I assumed, life would be simpler. I was undeterred by the fact that I lived in Fort Lauderdale and my grandmother lived in Cleveland. Using the logic I employ to this day, I figured the details would work
The trouble with summer in South Florida, if you can ignore the heat, the humidity and the hurricanes, is the mosquitoes. It may be my imagination but it seems like the critters are larger, more numerous and way more aggressive than when I was a kid. The mosquitoes that make it impossible for me to
I sometimes wonder why we Baby Boomer are so obsessed by food. We idolize the Top Chefs and love to try new food at trendy restaurants. We spend our nights watching the Food Network and we search for the ultimate hot sauce. But why?
Like Mother Used to Make Read More »
My high school friend Ron was in town from Houston, dealing with his elderly parents. Ron and I managed to make it through the Catholic school system relatively unscathed, although neither of us identifies as Catholic anymore.
The Ways of Martyrs Read More »
One of the dubious benefits of having a Facebook account is that I am able to connect with people from my past. Of course, if I cared about any of these people they would be a part of my present, not my past, but that’s another story. Thanks to Facebook, I have become reacquainted with
