It was the day after Ash Wednesday when I stopped by my business mailbox. I had about a million things on my to-do list for the coming three days, and I knew I wouldn’t get through them even with having Friday off. But along with the usual magazines and solicitations was this lovely book, written… Continue reading On the Nightstand: Tuesday’s Journal
Category: Memoir
George, Betty, and Me
People ask me if I’ve always been a writer, and I usually answer that while I remember writing a story called “Amy’s Valentine” in fourth grade, not really much after that for decades. But in sorting through school stuff recently, I found a story that predates Amy by a year, “The Fourth of July.” “Very… Continue reading George, Betty, and Me
We’re All Right, Mom
Her name was Gloria Mary Monica Smith Rigney, and she died thirty years ago today. She grew up in small towns all across Wisconsin; spent probably the two happiest years of her life in Washington, D.C., near the end of World War II (the era in which this photo was taken); and ended up in… Continue reading We’re All Right, Mom
About Faith, Tradition… and Pot Roasts
Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there. Back in the dark ages, I took a college course titled “Individual and the Family.” It must have been required for one of my majors, because I surely wouldn’t have taken… Continue reading About Faith, Tradition… and Pot Roasts