“Come on, Henry, we need to get going,” Nell Castle said to her husband. “They’ll all be waiting for us.” Henry reached for his black hat resting on the top shelf of the closet. “Mother, I would rather just stay home, if you don’t mind.” He waited, hoping he’d get a reprieve. “Henry Castle, don’t…
Tag: history
The Healing Power of Remembrance
Since we recently celebrated Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I wanted to share an altar I created a few years ago for my best childhood friend, Patricia Butler. At that time, I was taking ceramics classes at Barnsdall Art Center in Los Angeles when my teacher mentioned that the center was planning…
A Major Reason I Am Excited to Visit Madrid
In just two weeks, I’ll be heading to Spain to host our annual Story Circle Network International Sightseeing Tour and Writing Workshop. While I am always eager to go on these incredible trips, I am especially excited to have the chance this time to see Picasso’s Guernica in person. This extraordinary painting about the atrocities…
Flash Memoir: A Wrecked Model T
The car looked like a Model T, or what was left of it. It was more rightly, the carcass of a Model T with no wheels or tires, no engine, no seats. Only the body of the old car, rusted, bent, and disheveled, like an old woman with too many miles and too much booze. …
What the American Dream Looks Like
I wrote this piece several years ago. Fong not only attended medical school, but is currently completing an orthopaedic surgery residency. His brother graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a degree in computer science, and his sister is also attending UCSD, where she is studying engineering. I’m proud of these kids and…
To My Late Brother John on His Birthday Tomorrow
Tomorrow is my late brother John’s birthday—the Ides of March. The flash memoir piece below is something I wrote a while back, but it feels fitting to repost it now. My oldest brother was a very good friend of mine. He had a wicked sense of humor and a way of saying precisely what I…
Thinking Tonight of My Maternal Grandfather: Robert McClucky Waugh
I never met my grandfather, but my mother’s description of him has brought him to life for me. He was a small man, not quite 5’8”, and very slim. He wore round spectacles and had bright eyes that shone when he saw his only daughter, Helen Marie. He called my mother his “little gurl,” since…
A Poetry Book That Pulls You In and Teaches You History
My daughter Rachael has introduced me to a book of poems from her poetry class at UCLA entitled Blue-Tail Fly by Vievee Francis. This is a wonderful volume of persona poems written in the voices of either real people or composites of people living from the pre-Mexican American War through the post-Civil War era. This book…
20 Minutes a Day 