Category: family
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Bits and Pieces
I had a wad like this in my hands earlier. I could leave little sticky notes for myself all over the house, particularly in the laundry room, on the washing machine door, and I would still forget some of the tissues I had stuffed deep into the pockets of every…
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Channeling Norma Desmond
There was a period of my youth in which I wanted to be an actress. Just one of many dream careers I wanted before I hit my teens—along with ballerina, veterinarian, musician, and pilot. Flying was miraculous to me in those days. If I could have sprouted wings and taken…
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Peppers
I can’t see bell peppers without thinking of my mother. A tiny woman, fragile, loose-limbed, and notoriously accident-prone, she could find the single crack in a sidewalk over which a thousand people had stepped without falling, and lose her footing. Despite her delicate constitution, she had a sharp mind, wicked…
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Pan Fried
My parents had a cast iron skillet. It wasn’t very big, but many of the meals we had came out of it—eggs, burgers, chicken, steaks, fish, and grilled cheese sandwiches. The color of pitch, every surface of that pan was so slickly well-seasoned that nothing stuck to it. I have…
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Chock Full of Nuts
A recent viewing of the documentary, The Automat, launched me on a nostalgia tour through the New York City of my youth. I have ample memories of Horn and Hardart’s Automats in Manhattan, the excitement and pleasures of eating there, which I’ll talk about in a future post, but for…
