Digging through family photos is never dull. … especially when you uncover a photo like this: Dad! You look like a mobster! Dad was 12 or 13 years old in this photo. His family still lived in Lowell, Massachusetts, but would soon relocate to New Haven, Connecticut. Alas, Dad doesn’t have a story to go along with this photo. But while digging around in Fold3.com (the military arm of Ancestry.com), an FBI Report caught my attention … FBI Report? Before…
“You’ve got to pay more attention to current events – today is HUGE!” It was August 8, 1974, and my friend Jenny was beside herself with glee. Although just 16, she followed politics closely and was overjoyed that President Richard Nixon was about to resign in disgrace, following the Watergate Scandal. Despite Jenny’s urging, I simply wasn’t into politics – or current events for that matter. The “news bug” would bite me in college as I took journalism classes, but…
“Boy am I glad to have this cell phone!” Well, I nearly cried. I’d talked Dad into buying a mobile phone well over a decade ago. It took until the other day – and the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias – to hear him praise the handiness of this new-fangled option to his trusty land-line phone. Gary and I sometimes ponder this question: What gadgets will our sons want us to use in the future? My husband is incredibly technology-adverse (although…
When you’re a child of the Depression, you have a different outlook on personal finance. Mom used to tell the story of Dad, as a young child, going door to door trying to sell his toys. He wanted to help feed his family. When I asked him about it recently, Dad recalled that he sold his alphabet blocks for five cents a piece. He raised about 25 cents, and presented the pennies and nickels to his parents. As he hit…
Along with many others in July, we hopped onto Disney+ for a month to take a look at the film version of the Broadway smash Hamilton. It was phenomenal. Memories flooded back as I thought back to my early teens, Girl Scouts, and a community service project at the Burr Mansion. We moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, during the summer of 1970. In the fall, I joined the local Cadette Girl Scout troop and started working on badges. For the “My…
“I learned something new today,” Dad told me the other day during our evening phone call. “Not that I’ll ever use it, but a group of hummingbirds is called a ‘charm.’” Dad welcomes hummingbirds to his yard each year, even though some fluffy-tailed four-legged friends like to take advantage: When we were kids, Dad called himself “The Big Professor.” He knew stuff, and when we asked him how he knew this or that, his response was always: Because I’m the…
In the middle of the night, a mosquito bite woke me up from a deep sleep. Not a new bite, just an extremely itchy one. Darn those mosquitoes! The bite was so itchy that I’d dabbed Benedryl Cream on it yesterday afternoon, and topped it off with a band-aid. Advice: Be sure to put tubes of anti-itch cream away safely after using. As mortifying as this is, I must admit to not paying attention a few weeks ago and squeezing…
Gosh, I miss Robin Williams. He’s been gone for nearly six years. But today is his birthday, so let’s celebrate his life. What an amazing actor and improviser! What a comedian … and humanitarian. My brother Dave’s daughter, Becky, met Robin by chance back in 2002. You know, she’s really not a pushy dame, but she couldn’t pass up the chance to meet him. Here’s Becky’s recollection of that day: I met him while traveling to San Francisco with my…
There’s so much to know about my paternal grandfather. Grandpa Vayo was a humble guy, though, so it’s taken a lot of research to piece together the story of his life. Lots of conversations with Dad, emails to my brothers, and searches on Newspapers.com. And here we are. Harold Edward Vayo was born on this day in 1899 in Brewer, Maine. His parents, George and Alice, had already lost a child to cholera. Little Gladys Alice was only 15 months…
Who remembers Dan Quayle? (This isn’t a political commentary – promise!) In case you don’t remember him, he was the nation’s 44th Vice President, under President George H.W. Bush. And he was born in Indiana. My first job out of college was in radio news in a little community called Tell City, Indiana. Named for William Tell, there were lots of apples and arrows about town, especially in the logos for local businesses and schools. The first few months I…