Growing up, I went to a Catholic girls’ school K through 12. The whole school was housed in one giant brick building with a huge playground on a full city block. The first floor housed the elementary school and extended out into a large gymnasium;… Read More
Ahhhh, Christmas is over. Cards have been sent, gifts have been given, meals have been eaten, and all that remains are the leftovers and the trash to be put out in the next collection. Unless you have big plans for New Year’s Eve, this period… 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
So, here we are at Thanksgiving, a time when everyone is supposed to count their blessings around the dinner table. The attitude of the season is gratitude and, in truth, while the search for reasons to give thanks might be difficult when times are tough,… Read More
It’s what I have come to call “That time of year” again — the late fall days in November between holidays when daylight savings time ends and the twinkle of Christmas lights begin to illuminate the darkness. The year is winding down, the New Year… Read More
All Hallows’ Eve is an old-fashioned term for Halloween. You seldom hear it these days, perhaps only in old New England towns or in some isolated ethnic communities. It brings to mind ancient history, Puritan superstitions, Celtic mysticism — all the myths and legends and… Read More
The romance inspired by moonlight was first given voice back in 1908 when the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth debuted Shine On, Harvest Moon in the Ziegfeld Follies. It was one of several moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era, but… Read More
Fall officially arrives this week, though you might be hard-pressed to know that in South Texas. Yes, some pumpkin patches are popping up and garlands of faux autumn leaves are for sale in Michael’s, but temperatures here this week will still be in… Read More
I never paid much attention to grocery shopping when I was a kid, mainly because we ate out or ordered in a lot and, when my mother did grocery shop, it was an expedient experience. But that was a very long time ago. These… 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
the narrative thread 