Category Archives: Family

Summer In The City

Posted on May 31, 2025 by Al

[Final Draft] CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – SUMMER IN THE CITY With my future employment assured in Tacoma, I turned my attention to the new experience of home ownership. Our south-facing house, in the terraced neighborhood known as The Avenues, took the … Continue reading →

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VW Bus — Chapter 1

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Al

[Envisioned as the first chapter of the second section of the memoir of Cheryl & Al’s Early Days] “Right. You can tell the year of your bus by its color.” The salesman at Marina VW took another drag on his cigarette and … Continue reading →

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Harry & Ida – Chapter 1.ii

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Al

[First draft!] The next morning after breakfast,  Grace took Ida and Gretchen upstairs. After making sure their faces and hands were washed, she told them to put on their church dresses and come out into the hall. “Girls, Weeda wants to … Continue reading →

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Harry & Ida, Chapter 1.i

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Al

[FIRST DRAFT – corrections and further edits probable] Ida swung gently in the double swing suspended at the bend of the porch. The sweet scent of lavender soap her mother Grace had washed with that morning drifted with in from … Continue reading →

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Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Al

The crowd erupted, a full-throated cheer echoing off the steel columns supporting the upper deck above us. I turned to my father, asking, “Why’s everybody excited?” He pointed down at the field. “Kluszewski’s coming out,” he said. Seven years old, … Continue reading →

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4119

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Al

“Can you look at this house for me?” My sister usually ramble when she calls, but this time, she’s all business. “It’s a block up from the harbor, I think it would be just perfect.” “Are you moving? What this … Continue reading →

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Give Me A Head With Hair – III

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Al

            I graduated for the fourth, and last, time, in 1978, from residency, and prepared to enter the Real World. We moved from LA to Utah. After a winter skiing every day in the local Wasatch mountains, I undertook a search … Continue reading →

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Give Me A Head With Hair — I

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Al

March  18, 2020…For a week, it had been one “WTF?!?” moment after another. Sports leagues shut down. Colorado abruptly closed its ski areas. The French stopped eating in restaurants, even on the sidewalk. Schools closed, universities sent students home. Microsoft and … Continue reading →

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Wood Shed

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Al

“Look!” I pointed out our study window, overlooking one of the five acres on which we live. Cheryl, still asleep, or nearly so, could only mumble, “Mumpf?” “A tree. A big one. It must have fallen recently. I didn’t hear … Continue reading →

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If Opportunity Knocks, You’d Better Be Home

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Al

Whatever the opposite of a black cloud is, that’s what has followed me around all my life. While luck may be the intersection of opportunity and preparation, I have had more than my share of the former. It starts, of … Continue reading →

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