I was up late last night, pondering the meaning of Mother’s Day. I learned this, from National Geographic: It all started in the 1850s, when West Virginia women’s organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis held Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk contamination, according to … read more The mother of Mother’s Day
Category: Inheritance
Ancestry and DNA, memory, blood ties, what we gain from the past and our parents. The nonfiction book 1919 looks at people and events of that year in their convergence, as harbingers and initiators of all that happened in the century.
German engineering
I own a very fine piece of German engineering that I really treasure. It’s not Xena the BMW (which belongs to Tom). Although, this object has some of the same strength, grace and power in its design that Xena does. It’s my meat grinder. It belonged to my mother, and I think she got it as … read more German engineering
No foolin’
Aunts Clara and Bette showed up right on time to pick up Dad for a lunch outing that day. They pulled into the driveway – and got a shock. Dad came to the door in his bathrobe and staggered to the car, moaning. “Ohhhh, take me to the hospital!” he groaned. Alarmed, they helped him … read more No foolin’
Message received, Harry
I miss Harry Golden. Even though he’s been dead for 35 years and I never met him. Harry’s been on my mind a lot lately. My longtime friend Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett wrote the definitive biography of Golden (1903-1981), Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, the South, and Civil Rights, published last … read more Message received, Harry
Dr. with a cure
I have a great pair of black fleece pants that I found in a thrift store – they’re covered with neon-green Grinch faces. Obviously these are meant to be for Christmas and lounging, but today I put them on and wore them all day. All FIVE visitors saw me wearing them: the water remediation guy, the … read more Dr. with a cure
The lives we lived
The stock market has crashed and ruined families are living in shanty towns, but you’d never know it from the home movies of William Kaliska. Watch them dance the Charleston, go to a polo match, ride in a Goodyear “airship,” laugh at a garden party, throw ticker tape at a parade for champion golfer Bobby Jones. These aren’t … read more The lives we lived
Germans, maybe
The image above comes with this caption: Typical group of Gary, Indiana school children. Top row standing : left to right, Greek, Negro, Roumanian, Lithuanian, Italian, Polish, Croatian, Hungarian. Middle row, American, Austrian, German, Bulgarian, front row, Scotch, Russian, Irish, Assyrian, Slavish, Jewish and Spanish. Do these children look American? The people in the photo above were … read more Germans, maybe
Dad’s necklaces
Dad didn’t have much chance to acquire a taste for expensive jewelry. He was an Ohio farmer boy in a poor German Catholic family, one of eight kids being raised by a widow during the Depression. But he liked jewelry better than Mom, I think. Mom seemed to feel that jewelry was showing off and … read more Dad’s necklaces
How I won the lottery
I almost didn’t buy a lottery ticket for the $1.5 billion Powerball. Good thing I changed my mind! Normally I don’t buy lottery tickets. Why should I? Didn’t need it. As I’ve often told people, I won the lottery already. At birth. I was born healthy, with two loving healthy parents and three loving healthy … read more How I won the lottery
Accomplished
My biggest accomplishment of 2015 is that I survived it. I like the sound of that – it has the right mix of crispness and surprise. But … nah. “Privileged white girl! What do you know about survival?” my inner critic hisses. The people who should be allowed to take credit for surviving 2015 are … read more Accomplished