“Hot enough for ya?“ Har-dee-har-har. I used to force a smile back in my working days when a visiting reporter considered that a good conversation starter as we began our walking tour. Especially back in the summer of 1999, when I was pregnant with James all summer, it was a challenge. I tried not to complain much, though, as my communications position was mostly an office job. I’ve heard from several friends and family members this week, the hottest days…
“Meat! Don’t you have any meat? I need meat!” An Indiana University football player hollered across the counter at me 45 years ago today. The poor fellow, and his beefy friends, were looking nervous as they made their way through the dorm cafeteria line and slowly realized the dinner menu was not quite as protein-laden as usual. That’s because we were under a state-wide “snow emergency” as three days of blizzard conditions (on top of previous snowfall) had closed the…
Did you get hit with crazy cold temperatures this past week? Snow for some, overnight freezing temps for many more. Rita, my mother-in-law, would always say it’s “the Iceman” making mischief when there’s a cold snap in late April or early May. She warned not to plant crops (and flowers) too early in the spring. Tuesday afternoon, Farmer Gary dashed over to the home place to cover the geraniums his sister Sharon and her husband, Mike, planted a few weeks…
Does anyone still watch for “the first robin of spring”? That was a game, of sorts, growing up in western Massachusetts. Winters were so long that even a whisper of spring gave us a real lift. Sidenote: I fondly remember the annual family activity of clearing the driveway of the half-foot or so of packed snow and ice. It was genuinely fun chipping away the giant chunks during the February thaw and again in the spring. The only other chilly…
All my life, Dad has talked about what a scamp he was as a kid. Yet, there were no stories to back up his claim. Was this silence on his part due to not wanting to set a bad examples for his four children? Perhaps. It’s only now that the confessions are spilling forth. As his confessor, I am impressed, but not yet mortified. Here’s a story: Times have changed over the generations, thank heavens. Back in the 1930s, Catholics…
For as long as I can remember, our family’s lore about my great-grandparents’ emigration from Ireland includes the phrase “they missed the blizzard.” For some reason, I always assumed the blizzard was in Ireland and the newlyweds escaped it. Although blizzards are not entirely foreign to the Emerald Isle, neither are they a regular occurrence. It turns out, the “escape” was on the arrival side. The year was 1888 and in March, America’s northeast was paralyzed by ice, snow, wind,…
When I showed this photo to grandson Cameron, 6, his reaction was immediate: “Goose! Goose! Is that Frosty the Snowman?” My grandson calls me Goose. I hope he never stops. The photo is from Saturday. James (the freshman who’s technically a sophomore at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) sent it. That’s James (Uncle James if your name is Cameron) the third builder in from the right. Wearing a toasty-warm blue jacket. But no hat and no gloves. As a side note,…