Category: Uncategorized
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Just a Minute
Mid morning my mother is sitting on a dining room chair. It’s one of the spare chairs in their set, made of dark wood, with rattan back and a soft green velvet cushion, placed away from the table, kept handy in case of company. She’s wearing a blue dress with long sleeves, dressed for the…
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Heat
There were late summer nights we took long rides together. We were buddies. She was part of a Midland duo that found their way to Freeland, hanging out at the Rat Hole Bar with the guys who got high and drank cheap wine and listened to loud music. That summer–it would have been 1971–John Lee…
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Pet No
“The good thing about a dog,” a friend said to me once, “is they teach kids about death.” I thought back to my teen years, remembering when Gus, the family dachshund, came up the stairs one morning walking crooked. He looked like a backslash on legs, like his rear end was pulling out to pass…
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We Did We Do
We were sitting on the edge of the bed. We’d been married for ten hours. The Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit offered a honeymoon package: a wedding suite, a chilled bottle of champagne. We’d bought that package. We’d been in the room for ten minutes now. It was nice enough. But where was the champagne? “I’ll…
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Okay, Let’s
It wasn’t much of a proposal. Really, it wasn’t a proposal at all. It was a consensus decision. Well, yeah, I guess we ought to get married. We are driving south on I-75, coming home from a ski trip. It was a Sunday night. There was a lot of traffic. We’d spent the weekend up…
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Want a Slice?
I knew I was supposed to like it. I wanted to like it. But the whole experience left me wondering–What’s the big fuss? Is this all there is? No, not first sex. I’m talking about first pizza. It seems unthinkable that I could have reached the age of 12 or 13 and never had pizza.…
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Then Play On
He brought it to school in a paper bag. I paid him $12. It was an acoustic guitar with a reddish sunburst finish. I don’t think Eddie Maurer ever played it. Or anyone else, for that matter, because the distance between the strings and the neck of the guitar was about a quarter inch and…
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Open Wide
“Bite down.” Our son was in the orthodontist’s chair. He was nine years old. My wife was keen on having his teeth fixed, as soon as possible. Dr. Brown looked in his mouth, swabbed, tapped, did a little perfunctory scraping, then shook his head and sighed. “David,” he said, “your mother has been bringing you…
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Baby
The woman in the next bed kept calling to her husband, “Fred! Oh, Fred!” And Fred said, “Okay, honey. Try to breathe now. Short breaths. Like this. Remember?” He pursed his lips and demonstrated. “Ohmygod, Fred!” “Breathe, honey.” I looked at my wife, she looked at me. She and Fred’s wife were in the on-deck…
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Arrival
I shared a suite with Cliff. The Buell Hall room was divided into three sections: a central common area where the four of us each had a desk and bookshelves; off this area, two small bedrooms, each with two single beds joined at the head and our own closet space. It was January. The three…
A Legacy Project 