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Stonefort Reunion
This is the time of year I remember back to The Stonefort Reunion and the many years friends, classmates and I gathered to walk at least 100 laps each night around the fair midway. It was a time for us to reconnect if we hadn’t seen each other over the summer. We would run to check in with our families, who were sitting in lawn chairs clustered around the stage watching a variety of local music and dance talent, and ask for more money or beg to stay longer. In junior high and high school, it was a time for young love. Countless relationships surely began or ended between the…
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Move Over, Mary Kay
It was a day I dreaded to see end because we would see my mother for the last time. Her visitation had been the night before, and we had her moved to the church she loved so much, for her funeral service the next morning. I cringed at visitations because someone would always say how “good” the person looked. It seemed like such a weak attempt to comfort a loved one, or maybe the only words positive enough to express when you are at a total loss of something else to say. In my mother’s case, it was the very first thing I noticed, and I was amazed. She looked absolutely…
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One Red-Headed Cuckoo in the Bush Worth More than Two in the Hand
While in college, my friends and I would take our Christmas break and spend a month in Big Bend, Texas, backpacking and camping. I’m not talking day trips up a little trail and back again. I am talking about carrying everything we needed to survive, on our backs–the guys would have packs ranging from 60 to 65 lbs. and my pack was upwards of 50 lbs. (not too lame for a 5’2”, 100 lb. girly girl). Because we were spoiled and accustomed to luxuries we just could not leave behind, we included things like toilet paper, toothbrush, novel, and flashlight alongside our necessities such as tent, warm clothes, food, water,…
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Tiny House Sanctuary
It is a cool July morning in southern Illinois and strangely, the air we wear is low. Yeah. Humidity. Summer between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers is unbearably sticky and my white railed veranda is my sanctuary. I love coffee in the mornings there while the sun thinks about burning the mist off the water on a nearby pond. Three years ago, Jim and I thought it would be a great idea to leave the comfortable home where we raised two kids, four exchange students, my elderly father, multiple dogs and two cats, and downsize. One thirty foot dumpster, a moving sale, three trips to Salvation Army, and donating…
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Welcome to My Blog
Welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by! There has always been a writer in me screaming to get out, and like so many who feel that yank, it had to stay in the cocoon longer than I would have liked. The kids are raised, retirement from a lifetime of teaching is on the horizon, and it is time to spread my wings. Almost ten years ago I challenged myself to write a story every week and publish it to a blog site. While I am working on my first book, I will revive some of those stories and include some new ones here. My love is memoir:…
