My First Attempt at Poetry~

Wells Road Christian Academy
1982
 Mrs. Pugh published it in the church bulletin.  I’d forgotten about Mrs. Pugh.  Remind me to tell you about her and the “Barbie Bra.”  Another humiliating experience in my life.
When I think of my school
I think of a good school
A school by the golden rule.
(I wish I could remember this line but [...]

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The Bible Story~

One memory of my childhood didn’t make sense until I was an adult.  Ok, so a lot of them didn’t but this one in particular was one of those things that illustrate just how valuable wise and discerning parents truly are.
Mesa, Arizona.  John Hancock Academy.  Third grade.  Mrs. Rothlesburger’s classroom.
We were given an assignment.  It [...]

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Hairspray- The Second “Universal Solvent”

Most adults know that hairspray is an excellent way to get rid of ink stains.  I don’t know what chemical reaction happens to cause the ink to dissolve and run off with a good shot of hairspray but man, it happens everytime.  I do remember, however, when I learned of the miracle cleanser that also [...]

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The Demon~

Sometime in the winter of the sixth grade.  1982.  Blythe, California.  My permed hair looking as ’80’s curled as it could.  How funny, when I had it done I assumed it wasn’t in style but I liked it anyway.  I wore my last year’s jacket.  Grass green with red, yellow, and orange stripes near the shoulders.  [...]

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Christy~

She wasn’t really a cousin but she seemed like one.  Her mother and my aunt Susan were sisters.  She was John&Gloria’s granddaughter.  She just seemed, well, cousinly.
Her dad, Joe, was a kind man.  Somehow, I always think of Bill Pullman when I remember Joe.  Her mom, Sandy, worked at Newberry’s where I often shopped on [...]

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Wheaties- Breakfast of Livestock?

We went camping once when we lived in either Fillmore or Moorpark.  Mom, Dad, Bear, my cousin David and possibly Julie, and I.  I don’t remember a lot of that trip except that David was very out of his element.  I remember camp fires, and I think Bear and David did some hunting.  I dont’ [...]

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Waiting…

 I have one reundant memory of my mother.  One, I confess, I cherish and wish I didn’t have both.  Mom waiting.  She did a lot of waiting.  For me.  She waited, outside church, outside school, movies… you name it.  I cannot fathom the number of hours that my mother sat in a vehicle, often in [...]

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The Autumn Leaves…

Pasted on the window…
The Autumn leaves…
 That I colored…
What?!
Late summer often found us at Grandma Avants’ apartment on Osborn in Phoenix.  Uncle Oscar and Aunt Kay drove up from Kearney and while Dad and Uncle Oscar debated football scores, politics, and who knows what else, Aunt Kay and I would cut out decorations for the bulletin board and [...]

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Ingenuity: Or How Julie & I Got in Trouble This Time~

We raced around the house playing all kinds of exciting games.  We dug in the garden, “rode” on my fathers motorcycle, played with my toys and then something changed.  Any time children get antsy, they’re liable to do something odd and we did.  A game of hide and seek turned into an odd game of [...]

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Sally~

Who is Sally?  Why me!  Haven’t I ever told you that in addition to my unique name created by my father, I have a very common nickname that only my great grandmother called me.  Granny never could say or remember my name so she called me Sally whenever she referred to me by name.  I [...]

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