My auntie, Rosie Relph, turned 93! on March 20, the first day of Spring. Her body sometimes betrays her, but her looks and brain are fantastic.  She has lovely skin and such a quick mind. She lives in an assisted living facility, and whenever I call her, she always says she’s okay, and we usually end up laughing a bit.  She had COVID 19, but no symptoms.  She didn’t seem fazed, just surprised she had it considering all the quarantining and good habits she was practicing. She’s fourth in line of five sisters.  My mom, Gori, was the oldest, then came Rose, Petra, … Continue reading Rosie

In the spirit of my new tradition – writing a story about my loved ones on their birthdays, I’m saluting my brother, Craig, who turns SIXTY! today. It was the Fall of 1960.  I got home after school, walked in to the house and found three of  my mother’s four sisters, in our kitchen. Somewhat surprising at that time of day, but nevertheless, my family got together ALL THE TIME for the slightest of reasons. I could soon tell something was up.  Was it the fact that they were all staring at me, waiting expectantly?  I think it was Aunt Marie who spoke … Continue reading Happy Birthday Craig!

From a Writing Prompt* I am wearing a red bathrobe.  I can’t be more than three or four because my sister, Karen, had not yet arrived on the scene. We lived in a small house on West Ralston in Ontario, California.  I think we were on the wrong side of the tracks, but what did I know? I decided to go for a walk.  I made it about a block or two before I saw my father coming for me.   “Where are you going?” “I’m going shopping.” Now do I remember this because I heard the story so many times?  Or do I really … Continue reading Earliest memory.

As children, my siblings and I didn’t get to go to the movies that often, which in retrospect made it more of a special occasion, I suppose, but when we did, I waited on pins and needles all day until it was time to go, fearing our mother would cancel for some infraction committed by one of us.  We did our chores without grousing or griping.  We never called them “chores,” by the way.  We just did what we were supposed to without a monetary allowance. It seemed to me that our mother – an excellent cook — fixed my … Continue reading Not About the Pandemic or Politics – Except for One Tiny Reference to UNOHOO.

(Written last week and having a hard time with this.  Just going to post because I’ve got to do something.) This morning I watched, as I usually do, CBS Sunday Morning. There is always a good mix of headline news, humor, and in-depth interviews, but today it was ALL BAD NEWS, the only exception being a story about Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live and his new movie.  It was a welcome respite. One of the stories was about the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II.  The 75TH anniversary of that bombing is coming up in August. As a … Continue reading CBS SUNDAY MORNING – JUNE 7, 2020

Some families have their own language.  Ours certainly did. After writing this, I noticed my mother was the main disseminator of our special language and its peculiarities, but Dad had a few, too. “Let’s go so we can come back.”  I’m not sure who coined this one, but I heard both parents say this a lot.  Mainly my dad because he never wanted to go anywhere or see anyone except us. This was said before any family excursion or social event we had to attend.  It became a joke, and I and my siblings all use it to this day.  … Continue reading Family Language

Yesterday, while sitting in the DMV office I started to wonder:  Where do the Beautiful People renew their licenses, get their cars registered, get a RealID, etc., because they sure weren’t the people in the DMV in Winnetka.  There’s the first clue – it’s Winnetka — a town I never heard of before moving to the San Fernando Valley. Shall we just say that Winnetka is not known for its tourist attractions? Maybe the BP pay someone loads of money to do it for them, but then how is their picture taken? Of course, even I know that if you’re … Continue reading The DMV

The leader of our writing group suggested a prompt we might want to use for our next meeting. Take a walk around your home/apartment. Find an object that you have out that means something to you. Tell us the story behind that object. Try to write a description of that object so that we can see it in our mind. Tell us why it is important to you and what memories it holds for you. It might be the afghan on the back of the couch that someone made for you, a vase that was a wedding gift, or a … Continue reading The Writing Prompt

My granddaughter, Maddy, is now thirteen years old, but the changes I’m going to talk about have been coming on for some time. We used to go to Target to spend hours in the Barbie section.  She was very selective, but I always tried to talk her out of the more expensive dolls.  Sometimes I prevailed; sometimes she did.  Okay, I admit more often she did. It was kind of crazy because the minute she got home – no, no, the minute she got in the car she ripped the package open and started stripping off the clothes. When she … Continue reading From Barbies to Mascara – the saga of Madeleine Campus