Nothing dates a person like her repertoire of songs. My repertoire is a rusty, dusty, relic of a long ago yesterday. In my school days, both as a student and as a teacher, we began the day with singing, the Flag Salute, and the Lord’s Prayer. At Valley Center, one of the best elementary schools […]

Goose Summer
From The Heritage of Etta Bend by Susie Latty Day. Time: around 1918, Place: the Latty Farm. In the fall come rare, sparkling days that are warm and bright, with very little wind, when nature seems to savor the last remnants of summer. Spider webs break loose from their moorings and float through the air, […]

When the Light Turns Golden
There’s something about the late afternoon, just before the supper hour, when the day is winding down and the light lies golden and still through the windows. There’s a hush, a silence in the rooms, a quiet acceptance that the day is over and soon the sun will slip beneath the horizon. What do you […]

That’s America to Me
My grandparents once owned a store and lived in a house across the road. The house and store are gone now, but the memories of it still survive. I remember being in it as a child and it seemed awfully big, dark, and exciting. The candy counter and the bright-colored sweets with the scales my […]

Brewers of Coffee
The first thing I do each morning after feeding Nemo is make a pot of coffee. Some of my fondest memories center around cups of coffee and the people who brewed them. I guess a person’s mother is always the yardstick by which everything else is measured, but really, my mother could make the most […]

