This past weekend, my best friend and I took time to get away for the night and visit the Ohio Valley Antique Mall. Here’s what we discovered. melamine plates and stoneware bowls wooden stools and furry-haired Trolls Christmas ornaments from long-ago trees mounted antlers and skeleton keys vintage Barbies old bird cages antique books with…
Though I grew up in Appalachia I did not grow up near woods. The only patch of wooded land in walking distance belonged to Winston Oliver, or so he led me to believe. A 13-year-old entrepreneur, Winston told me I looked like a girl who appreciated nature. I was nine at the time. For 50…
Years ago, my husband planted panicle hydrangeas behind the house. Today, they stoop… in a lovely, heavy-headed group like tall girls at a middle school party who have yet to realize their beauty, shrinking themselves to fit the norm; but one stalk stands tall, poking her yellow-white head through the weathered slats on the deck…
Little shadow, loyal friend. Your dog-kindness soothed years of human hurts. Your nearness through dark, sleepless nights…us under the moon. Thank you.
Family pet, circa 1980: My dad rescued a dog once, not from the pound, from Main Street. It was back when Dad and Uncle Ronnie owned a full-service gas station. One warm morning, a Winnebago rode up to the pumps, driving right over the rubber hose that triggered the service bell. Dad came out from…
Family pet, circa 1979: Our gray cat, Tiny, (who weighed well over 15 lbs) decided one day he hated everyone who wore blue jeans; so he hid behind the hedges and leapt out aggressively when neighbors walked by in their Levis. He climbed up their pants legs, biting their outseams (and sometimes a thigh), digging…
My husband and I returned last week from a 10-day beach vacation. We drove my car, Cozy. It was her first trip to the beach. I argued that we should take my husband’s vehicle. It was larger, more room for all our luggage. It was more experienced, having already taken a beach trip the summer…
The summer before I started high school, I wanted a hair style that would make me look cool. My mom heard of a salon only two hours away. (It was 1984. Google reviews could not save the day.) Mom drove our station wagon, her purse in her lap. Granny rode shotgun, and I read the…
My grandfathers lived on the opposite sides of our hometown one by the river, one on a curving hill. Politically, they lived further still. On Saturday mornings, I scrambled eggs with one. On Sunday afternoons, I listened to Big Bands with the other. One completed crossword puzzles with a blue pen. The other read the…
Waves of nausea – roiling from head to stomach, a cold rag pressed to a forehead, a sick day, a TV tray, 7-Up, saltines Waving a flag – team colors (Go, team, go!); a white flag (Let it go.) Ocean waves – gentle one moment, rolling, tumbling, a yellow flag on the beach (Use caution,…