There was a new kid in our town. Like small towns everywhere in the early ’60s we were a settled-in group (you’d say, “inbred”). The same kids were in Washington and Lincoln grade schools from K-6 and collected to become the seventh grade at Jefferson School. A presidential bunch with nobody fooled. The athletic teams, organizations […]

I’ve been the new kid many times, including moves to new states and one totally foreign country (the USA), but the most memorable experience was when I was 9 years old. We had just moved to Vermont, and I fell instantly in love with the Green Mountain State. Being an outdoorsy sort of girl, I […]

I was a plumber’s helper for six years, and I take a day off here and there from my current job to climb back into the green van. I became a plumber’s helper at the age of 45. Before this time, I cared little about how water reached a faucet. In my basement, the ancient […]

The sun peeked over the trees and spread like butter across the horizon, while the morning fog melted away. Somewhere around a bend in the road, near the woods, a peculiar sound emerged from the blackberry bushes. “Caw, caw, caw. ” Peter Jr. and Benjamin were playing in the backyard when they heard a noise. […]

Growing up, I was always the “new kid” at school. About every two years I walked alone into a new classroom and was often tagged as just another “military brat.” That changed when I entered, for the first time, a school in the South. I experienced a new tag. One that haunted me for many […]