A few years back, my husband and I were traveling from California to Texas, and I was pulling a 1958 Buick on a trailer behind our 15-passenger Ford Van. This was my husband’s idea of love at first sight – that ’58 Buick – a car from his birth year that he hoped to restore…
Category: Flash Memoir
My Connection to Texas
Whenever I drive back to Texas, the minute I hit the border from New Mexico, a calm settles over me. Not that West Texas is my home, but still, I can see the big open sky and the flat plains and I hear that West Texas closed-mouth drawl when I stop for gas. These signal…
Childhood Days of Fabric Stores and Seamstresses
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not much of a shopper. I hate going into clothing stores and going through the racks to determine yet again that I am a hard size to fit. The fashion industry certainly doesn’t use the under 5 foot tall woman as the model for their clothes and…
A Memory of Mom…
Today I worked with a graduate student in Psychology on a paper on “Differentiation in Family Systems.” Differentiation is basically when children establish their own personhood that is separate from the family unit. I remember a moment when I was 13 when this concept played out in my own life. When I was 13, I…
My Dad, Sweet Memories on the Eve of His Birth
Tomorrow is my father’s birthday. Here is a piece I wrote about him a while back, but that still rings true for me. This provides a window into my world with him: “Have I told you today how much I love you?” This was a question my father asked me every day I was growing…
Anthology Piece Recently Published: My Mother and Her Pain
“Please don’t share our family tragedy,” my mother whispered to me while we stood in church together in Pottsboro, Texas in 1990. I understood what she was saying to me. “Please don’t tell these people. I can’t bear to deal with this now.” Tragedy was not too strong of a word. We had just learned…
Sweetness Amid Sorrow
Twenty-nine years ago today, I was crossing the hall from the bathroom to the bedroom at my friend Patricia Butler’s house in Austin when I heard the distressed voice of a news commentator on television as he reacted to the unexpected explosion of the space shuttle Challenger less than two minutes into its launch. I…
Flash Memoir: Christmas Traditions at My House Growing Up
When I was growing up, our family tradition for Christmas was to go to Midnight Mass at Holy Trinity Episcopal church in my hometown of Bonham, Texas, then return to our house with all the church people for a big party. This meant the party started around 12:30 or 1 in the morning on Christmas…
Lucky
Sometimes people described me as the Marilyn in my family. That is a reference to “The Munsters” from television in the 1960’s when Marilyn was the only “normal” person in a family of vampires, werewolves and several more other worldly creatures. If you knew my family, everyone had a special something that made them unique…
Twirling, Band and Tommy Nugent
When I was a senior in high school, I decided to try out for twirler. I had been a devoted band member, starting out with a cornet in 5th grade and eventually graduating to French horn. I definitely wanted to play French horn in concert band, but it was my senior year and I thought…
20 Minutes a Day 