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Category Archives: Family History
Dog Poop and Other Things That Stink
If you’ve lived long enough on this planet and have been out-of-doors for any period of time you’ve probably experienced it. One day you take an uninformed step on the ground beside you and you sense you’ve landed in a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged 1951, Andy Griffith, aroma, bizarre, consideration, dependent, dignity, dog poop, elder abuse, fast-paced, freedom, ghosts, God, hurry, incomprehensible, infractors, mother, Nursing Homes, olfactory, oxygen tank, patience, Plymouth, praise, pungency, rehab facilities, respect, rush, stink, taking things for granted, veracity, waiting, wheel chair, white shepherd/lab mix
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4 Comments
A Tale of Two Settees
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .” Thank you, Charles, for that awesome, albeit ominous, beginning to this blog. How does one begin the story of two couches? Has one ever been … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged accident, chair, change, Charles Dickens, Hemingway, Memphis, mother-in-law, murder-suicide, Settee, stronger in the broken places, witness
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6 Comments
First Guitar
It’s hard to estimate the value of an investment, isn’t it? The stock market changes with the times, the value of our currency fluctuates, and commodities like gold and silver vary with regularity. There is no certainty that what you … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged art, Campus Brothers Music Company, commodities, currency, first, Google, guitar, investments, New Orleans, patina, piano, priceless, sports, stock market, Stone Mountain Park
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6 Comments
My Father’s Tools
My father was a crafstman with wood. He could build furniture, build a house, take some pieces of wood and shape them into a 3-inch tall replica of a rockingchair with splayed legs pegged into the seat (just like the full-size ones we sit … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged approval, baseboard, courage, craftsman, father, grandfather, imperfect, legacy, miter box, persevere, pliable, presence, saw, stowaway, Sweden, tools, Tucson, woodworking
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6 Comments
Trains, Planes, and Tricycles
I lay awake in bed today in the early morning hours somewhere between 4:30 AM and 5:00 AM. That’s when I heard it. That lonesome whistle; the distant sound of a freight train. And it called to me . . … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged Arkansas, Arlo Guthrie, buoyant, chattanooga, Colorado, cowboy, Denzel Washington, diesel, Durango, early morning, Folsom Prison Blues, gene, hobo, hop a train, impassable, indefatigable, indestructible, John Charles Thomas, John Henry, John Muir, Johnny Cash, Josh Turner, Kensett, lonesome, mystique, narrow gauge train, persistence, power, Railway Express, relentless, Searcy, Silverton, Southern Railway, steel, Stone Mountain Park, Thomas the Tank, Tim McGraw, trains, Trane, unsinkable, Unstoppable, unyielding, whistle
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8 Comments
Nothing To Write Home About
In the collective memory of each and every family there are words and phrases that are so commonplace, so absolutely predictable that they become home to family members just as much as the family house or a favorite family recipe. … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged aware, dreams, email, failures, Family, garden, grandchildren, home, house recipe, letters, little things, memory, phrases, planting, reading, sensational, sequel, sharing, successes, unremarkable, value, words, writing
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16 Comments
New Year’s Day 1969: Take Off Your Gloves
I was fifteen years old in 1969. Full of life, teenage exuberance, and boundless expectation. So, when the invitation came to climb Mount Baboquivari on New Year’s Day, I was more than excited. Mount Baboquivari is a unique mountain peak … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged 1969, astounding, Baboquivari, belay, breathtaking, carbide lights, delights, discomfort, enjoy, feelings, Field of Dreams, gloves, Great Flood, heart, incomprehensible, injury, insurmountable, James Earl Jones, journey, Life, memories, Milky Way galaxy, navel, New Year's Day, obstacles, once-in-a-lifetime, orange, pain, Papago, rappel, rescue, risk, self protection, sentinel, sky, snow, Southern Arizona, stars, sunset, teenage, Tohono O'odham, trail, Tucson, unforgettable, unprotected
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8 Comments
It’s Not About Me!
I sat by my Dad’s beside as the doctor reviewed his medical condition and provided him with the treatment options that were available to him. Dad only had one kidney (he had lost the other to cancer several years previously), … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged acceptance, anger, Dad, death, depression, desert view, dialysis, goodbye, hospice, hospital, let it go, Life, not about me, peace, perfect storm, resignation, thank you
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10 Comments
First Christmas
My first Christmas was in 1953. But I don’t remember it at all. I was just a few weeks out of the incubator at the hospital in Chattanooga (having been 4 to 7 weeks premature, and just over 4 lbs … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized, World War II
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Tagged Christmas, death, Family, first, gifts, memory, Merrythought toys, mother, ornaments, presents, teddy bear, toys
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10 Comments
Unfinished Tasks
My oldest daughter was going through Christmas cards yesterday, sorting through some of her late grandmother’s unused cards to use as her own this season. We had given these cards to her as we cleaned out mother’s apartment in late … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged blessings, cards, Christmas, death, Family, final words, joy, loving words, mother, season, smiles, tasks, unfinished
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10 Comments
The Lost Story 