Thank You-

Thank you for dresser drawer beds and whisky shot glasses instead of bassinets and sippy cups.
 
Thank you for little smocked dresses with mice scattered across the fabric.
 
Thank you for prickley pears and magnolia blossoms.
 
Thank you for piggy back rides and starry nights.
 
Thank you for sleepovers on the roof and under a bush.
 
Thank you for slingshots, [...]

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A Good Old Fashioned Spanking~

I had old-fashioned parents.  They had crazy ideas about them being the authority and I being under their authority.  I was expected to obey, without question, and without complaint.  And I did.
 
I only remember two spankings.  I know I must have had more.  I remember dad explaining to me when we lived in Fillmore- I [...]

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Trying to Help~

Why is it, that trying to help never actually helps?  I can name a number of times that I “tried to help” and made things worse but the one that stands out most in my mind was when mom was either in Missouri helping Grandpa or in Victorville helping Uncle Ron with his store.  Dad [...]

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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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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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Not to Believe… THAT is the Answer!

Early December, 1974.  A little girl sits prattling about something in between bites of oatmeal and sips of milk.  She has a milk mustache.  She’s cute.  A teenaged boy inhales food as most teenagers do and a mother stands at the counter making the boy’s lunch.  The father eats his food and listens to the [...]

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Love & Taxis~

I know now, if I ever knew, why Dad sent me to Loves Steakhouse that night.  Occasionally, dad would send me to Mc Donalds, just around the corner, for a meal.  It was rare but it happened.  However one evening, when I was nine, Dad sat me down at the table, taught me how to [...]

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On the Road Again…

Being the daughter of an appliance repairman has its advantages.  First, your appliances always work.  Your uncles know how to get you to visit, they  just unplug their washers, say it doesn’t work, and you get a nice visit, probably with some good music, and Aunt Marilyn’s Devil’s Food cookies.  You also get some of [...]

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Of Superstitions, Donuts, and the Dutch~

Dad loves the desert.  Where most people see barren wastelands and blistered creation, Dad finds beauty and solace.  I do believe that he loved living at Furnace Creek/Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley better than any other place that he has ever lived. 
The Sonoran desert of Arizona is vastly different from California’s Mojave Desert.  The simple [...]

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Are My Ears On Straight?

My fourth grade picture (why do I always remember it as my third?) is not one of my more attractive school pictures.  I wore the dress I got for Christmas the year before.  Red dress with flowers, buttoned up the front with pleats on each side and a pointed collar.  Knee high socks.  Blue bar [...]

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