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Searching For The Greatest
In every town he visited, a violent protest broke out in the streets where Gaylen, the boy in The Search for Delicious, polled the people on their most delicious food. Everyone knew what the most delicious food was, but no one could agree, yet everyone agreed to disagree. Husbands, asked to be truthful, were forced to give up ship, and confess, that no, he really didn’t love his wife’s meat loaf as much as she had wished, but rather, his Aunt Ninny’s country fried chicken stole his heart instead. People shouted in the streets, vehemently stating that the official declaration of the most delicious food could be nothing else than…
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Mom, You Were Wrong
After spending the summer jumping off a wooden dock we took the birthday boy to the city pool, where there were diving boards, chlorine, and cement sidewalks. He asked if he could jump off the diving boards. I didn’t know. Could he swim to the ladder? So hard to know, as the lake obscures so many of the boundaries that he swims around. “Sure,” I said, gingerly, keeping my watchful gaze over his body, while scanning the distance from the diving board to the ladder. He Jumped, and easily swam to the ladder. Shot from my htc Google phone. Beaming from his success, he looked back at me and said,…
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To Our Majestic Friend
Hey Charlie, I’m sure right now you are standing guard over our dock, keeping the seagulls away. We’ll be up tomorrow, and this will be a big weekend for star/planet gazing. They tell us we’ll be able to spot Mars. Will you stand on that pier waiting for us, in the dark, like you did that one night when we were watching shooting stars? We barely knew you were there, so close to us, standing so majestically in the dark. I wonder, has your little offspring made it over to our side of the lake yet? I love how his downey head, with his bold stripe, looks so much fluffier…
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Bellies
I looked up from the hospital gown that draped over my belly, my knees poking through the stiff cotton fabric, dotted with green diamond rosettes, and was surprised to see the straight black hair framing the face of my still pregnant girlfriend, as she poked her head through the doorway. She had come to visit my first-born son and me. I had been through an ordeal… my emotions within the last 24 hours had run through the possibility of loosing my son, to an emergency c-section, to the beautiful realization that he was all right, to the awareness that I now had a catheter, and to the excruciating pain in…
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Mom, Look at That
“At what,” I said. He was standing on his crutches, looking out at the back window into the yard at the lake house. I looked there too, but still didn’t see what he was talking about. So, politely, I said, “yeah, nice.” He saw through my indifference, and said, “Look at how the sunlight is shinning only on the tree.”
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Benders
I’m looking through Photoshop, for its pictorial memories of summer. This year’s pictures are more about people and their stories too personal to share. One image that I love is that of my friend, who simply “mothered” me all summer — whenever I needed some care. On one hot afternoon, three families parked piled into two boats in the middle of the lake to swim. When we ran out of “supplies” and we’d all run to shore for a pit stop — bathroom breaks, drinks and snacks — chips were all we wanted. Those 8 of us who boarded her boat (her husband’s boat) got a bit more than just…
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Dry Spells in Deep Water
Every morning at 9:55a.m you can find me out on the dock, skis under my arms, loading the boat for the morning ski club runs. My goal, as the summer is nearing its end, is simply to get miles under my skis. Ideally, I would give my muscles a break every other day. But fall is approaching, and I have no time for that. Each wave I glide over builds my confidence, and makes me giggle. Each wave that submarines me, pouring, what seems like, gallons of water into my ear drums and lungs, teaches me something new about falling and getting back up. When I drift off to sleep,…
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Awesome, Summer Pizza
Cover one flour tortia shell with chunks of mozzarella and a few chunks of crumbled feta cheese. Add a layer of a sliced fresh-off-the-vine tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper Place under broiler in oven for 5 minutes. Take pizza from oven, and cover with fresh herbs, a bit more salt, and, this is the most important part — a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
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Midnight Showers
When the sun appears, we are a bit more sleepy than usual. Our real fun happens after 11 pm, when the sun finally sets, and the sky lights up like a planetarium. We sit back in our boat seat and look up. The Perseid meteor showers have returned. There is no other option than to take the kids with us, as we know that sleep can wait, and this is a better science lesson than any text book could deliver. Kids, ages 7-15 sit in the boat with grownups, without electronics, joining the chorus of “Ohhhh and ahhhhs” that sweep over the boat ever few minutes. Sometimes, by the time…
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