“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” My Mother loved ice cream. Of course, living in South Texas with the unbearable, unrelenting heat, who wouldn’t? But for her, a member of the post-War generation, the sudden ready availability and popularity… Read More
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… Ashes in the form of a cross on the forehead identifies penitential believers and marks the beginning of the forty day period of prayer, fasting, and sacrifice Catholics and other Christian denominations know as Lent. The ashes are a… Read More
I have a t-shirt that reads, “Sorry I’m late, but I didn’t want to come.” Every time I wear this shirt out in public, I get two or three people who come up to me with some version of, “OMG. Your shirt. That’s my… Read More
So here we are less than three weeks before Christmas, and I am still ordering on line. Not that I am giving a lot of gifts to people, since our family and friends have long since decided we don’t need any more stuff and don’t… Read More
When you think of deserts, no doubt you picture the great exodus scene in The Ten Commandments when Moses (Charlton Heston) leads his people out from Egypt onto the wide sands of the Sahara. Certainly, the Sahara is the quintessential desert, the largest… Read More
(Photo above of Leah Chase, philanthropist, chef and owner of the famous Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans, joyfully cooking at age 95.) When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t… Read More
There are three things I have always loved about Texas, and which I sorely missed during the 40 or so years I lived out-of-state: 1) the endless, cloudless perfect blue sky; 2) the bluebonnets that blanket the highways and byways during the early spring; and… Read More
As a youngster, I went to a girls’ Catholic school. Those were the days when an order of nuns were still the teachers and the ones in charge. Our school was across the street from the nuns’ convent, which was adjacent to the church… Read More
After a week of below freezing temperatures and a sleet/ice/snow storm that closed roads and highways, cancelled schools and government offices, and disrupted meetings and appointments all over South Texas, I am only now thawing out while writing this. We didn’t get as much snow… Read More
You reach an age, or a stage, in life where you really don’t need anything new and have no interest in acquiring anything more than you have. (Well, okay, so some “more is better” types don’t, but I’m talking about normal people.) Anyway, we have… Read More
the narrative thread 