The Totem
I can’t say what took hold of us that Saturday. We made a strange decision.Read More »
A Texas Ranching Adventure: The Family Milk Cow
A Texas Ranching Adventure: The Family Milk Cow
Driving through the dark down a Texas highway, my husband at the wheel, I shone the flashlight at the book and read,Read More »
A Texas Ranching Adventure: They Paid a High Price
A Texas Ranching Adventure: They Paid a High Price
The Tree Was Witness
An ancient pecan tree was witness to the Jacksons’ violent deaths and, 140 years later, the tree provided shade for the people gathered together to remembering the Jacksons’ fates.Read More »
Looking Towards Hathersage
Looking Towards Hathersage
I pause in my daily walk along the edge of the English town I live in and gaze across a soon-to-be-developed meadow and on towards the hills of DerbyshireRead More »
The Meaning of Hair in My Life
The Meaning of Hair in My Life
For years, I did not think hairdos very important. My mother was always after me: “A little brushing would help,” she’d say.Read More »
A Landscape Where There Are No Toilets
A Landscape Where There Are No Toilets
“Jimmy!” I shout into the phone, “I’m looking out the window at my front lawn at an honest-to-God human turd!Read More »
Turning 40 at a Tupperware Party
Turning 40 at a Tupperware Party
It is strange to be thirty-nine years old and afraid to attend a Tupperware party.Read More »
Texas Sesquicentennial
Texas Sesquicentennial
“Time to go, girls!” says Maria, the supervisory auditor, pushing back her chair, sticking out a leg, and checking her hose for runs. “This is important government business!”Read More »
Writers Take Heart from Gogol!
Writers Take Heart from Gogol!
My English professor Anthony Hilfer, in the midst of teaching J.D. Salinger’s works, asked our class, “Can any of you think of any good stories that are about happy people?” He paused only long enough for us to blink.Read More »
A Texas Ranching Adventure: Coping with Neighbors
A Texas Ranching Adventure: Coping With Neighbors
“But who are you married to?” the older woman asked again.
“The German across the road,” I said for the third time.
She shook her head and frowned.
“He’s my husband,” I insisted.
She stared at me. “But . . .”
She just couldn’t believe that I, a white woman, was married to a German.*Read More »
Tellin’ Stories 