Category Archives: Memoir

Discover Prompts Day 10 – Orchestrate: Eastward, Ho!

I once taught a class called “Road Trip!” with an exclamation trip. It was a sophomore-level introduction to literature course focused on the journey as metaphor. On the reading list was Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a book that I really don’t like very much. The other works featured road trips of a kind, startingContinue reading “Discover Prompts Day 10 – Orchestrate: Eastward, Ho!”

Discover Prompts: Day 9 – Pairs: The Ducks at San Diego’s Balboa Park

I spent a lot of time at Balboa Park in San Diego with my girlfriend watching the ducks. They were mostly mallards, with a few exotic types from the nearby San Diego Zoo. There were 21 of them for the longest time, week after week, a combination of adults and some yearlings. There is aContinue reading “Discover Prompts: Day 9 – Pairs: The Ducks at San Diego’s Balboa Park”

Discover Prompts #8: Curve

Picture a corkscrew. It’s curvy, curved in one direction. Hold that corkscrew horizontally. As you trace the curve, it moves forward and also curves back around to where it started. If you drew a line on the top of the corkscrew, each point on the metal part of the screw would line up, the spacesContinue reading “Discover Prompts #8: Curve”

The Left-Handers Guide to Getting Behind

This is Discover Prompts #6 for April 6 on the word Hands. Something about needing and then getting a root canal slowed me down. But I’m on the mend now. I’m a left-hander. My brother was a left-hander. My paternal grandmother was a left-hander. I know that my grandmother bowled left-handed in Ohio. She wasContinue reading “The Left-Handers Guide to Getting Behind”

The Magical Refillable Santa Claus Christmas Plate

I’m a day behind with Discover Prompts: Dish for April 5. Better late than never. We celebrated Christmas in my house, and my mom and dad pulled out all the stops: decorations, a beautiful tree, holiday gatherings with friends including big meals with elaborately set tables. Families gathered around the television for Christmas variety showsContinue reading “The Magical Refillable Santa Claus Christmas Plate”

On the Street Where I Lived: McKeever

I grew up on McKeever street in Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley in the same house for 23 years. The epitome of a Valley suburb, our street was as idyllic as any and held the hopes and dreams for all of us. We were a young neighborhood. I think there were 15 neighborhoodContinue reading “On the Street Where I Lived: McKeever”

Give My Regards to Broadway

A memory and a tribute to healthcare workers in New York City Today’s Discover Prompts is about “song.” I’m remembering a duet I used to play with my dad on the piano, “Give My Regards to Broadway.” I’m also thinking of the healthcare workers laying their lives on the line during this pandemic. I’m thinkingContinue reading “Give My Regards to Broadway”

Adventures in Sailing, Part 9 – Land-Ho!

Photo by Markos Mant on Unsplash The longer the trip to Hawaii took, the more on edge we all became. Imagine 11 unbathed teenagers and young adults, diminishing food supplies, an irritable captain, a navigation chart with a criss-cross line for our trail and no land in sight. We did what we could to bideContinue reading “Adventures in Sailing, Part 9 – Land-Ho!”

Adventures in Sailing, Part 7 – The Day-to-Day in the Pacific

Photo by Oliver Sjöström from Pexels Adventures in Sailing, part 7 The day-to-day in the boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean can become quite dull. Oh, give me that dullness all year long. In the first part of this series, I described our encounter in the doldrums. But when we had wind, there wasn’t anything quiteContinue reading “Adventures in Sailing, Part 7 – The Day-to-Day in the Pacific”