Flashback: 1985 The scene: My home in Knoxville, Tennessee, shortly after 6:00 p.m. Cast: Me (16 years old), My Dad (much older) Background: My Dad was the manager of a local Holiday Inn near the University of Tennessee campus and downtown Knoxville. Every now and then, bands who were playing in the area would stay there. This conversation occurred mere months after I was deeply scarred by the Prince/Purple Rain tour debacle. Dad, just arriving home from work: “Oh! I wanted to tell you. This group of kids is staying in the hotel…” Me: “A group of kids???” Dad: “Yes. A musical group.” Me, growing more excited since I was…
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I Lost My Innocence Right Outside The Corner Store.
Back in the 1970s, the world was a very different place and generally safer than it is today. Parents used to let their kids run around as long as they were home by dinner, or by nine, or whatever, and kids respected that. There were no cell phones, and although it was recommended that kids not talk to strangers, generally most strangers were totally fine. When my sister and I used to visit our Grandma, one of our favorite things to do was walk two blocks to the corner store in order to pick up any random items that Grandma “needed” (milk, potato chips, gum…I’m pretty sure she came up…
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Bonus, Indeed.
When my maternal grandparents passed away within two years of each other, I was still in elementary school. Obviously life happens: nobody can plan when it’s supposed to end. (I’m not even sure if anyone would want to plan the timing of that milestone.) Those of us who are left behind usually say things like, “I wish she were still living” or “He died way too soon” or, as if to justify feeling robbed of more time, “Only the good die young.” All I knew as a young girl was that I was going to miss my grandparents terribly, and I have. Lucky for my sister and me, Marilyn and…
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The Lane
When my family moved out of Chicago in 1980, we ended up in Fort Worth, Texas. Like a typical kid who liked things the way they were, I was not happy about the move at all until I found out that we’d be living in the hotel my dad was just hired to manage for a bunch of months while mom and dad found a house for us. My parents eventually decided to buy a home that was being newly constructed, something that was doubly exciting because not only would they be the first owners, but the home would be the first one they had ever purchased. As thrilled as…
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You Can’t Take It With You.
Excruciating. That’s what kind of week it’s been around here. In early April my sister and I had a pretty tough week as we performed a heart-wrenching search for a good nursing home for our Bonus Grandma* M. This week was worse, because we have been helping to pack up her condo and–yesterday–moved her out of her beloved condo into her new (nursing) home. I have so many thoughts swirling through my head and could probably write for days about all of it, especially because that’s what I tend to do in order to cope, but I just can’t. Besides the fact that my sister and I feel very raw…