When Dale and I were kids we always called milk: muck luck or klim (milk spelled backwards). When Mom butchered a word though, it was almost always due to regional influences. She grew up between Seattle, Washington and Ottumwa, Iowa so one of those places was responsible for her saying warsh instead of wash. I grew up […]
Read MoreThis one is for my nieces and nephews. It is a list of some of the social, cultural, and pop culture experiences I’ve had in my lifetime. Fashion trends, technology innovations, and fads that came and went in my time here on this good earth. Most of these experiences applied to their father as well, since he was only three years older than me.
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One of my favorite books when I was very young was The Tall Book of Make-Believe a collection of stories and poems selected by Jane Werner. I loved the illustrations, the imaginative stories, even the shape of the book: tall and slender. The stories and poems I enjoyed the most were the most fantastic and quirky ones. […]
Read Moreby Lewis Carroll `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. `Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!’ He took his vorpal sword in hand: […]
Read Moreby Alfred Noyes [First published in the August 1906 issue[1] of Blackwood’s Magazine it was the first serious poem that spoke to me. The imagery in the first stanza just really moved me.] PART ONE The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road […]
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by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) [from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865] “You are old, Father William,” the young man said, “And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head – Do you think, at your age, it is right?” “In my youth,” Father William replied to his son, “I feared […]
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by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) [from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872] The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright– And this was odd, because it was The middle of the night. The moon was shining sulkily, Because […]
Read Moreby Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) [from Cautionary Tales for Children, 1907. This is my all time favorite poem. To be recited with abundant dramatic intonations and great furrowing of brows.] When George’s Grandmamma was told That George had been as good as gold, She promised in the afternoon To buy him an Immense BALLOON. And so […]
Read MoreI love nonsense poems and songs; an appreciation I no doubt acquired from my Dad who introduced me to them early on. He never specifically said he loved them but he sure knew a lot of them and his eyes would light up when he recited them. The first one I remember learning from him was Antagonist by […]
Read MoreOreo came from the Houston SPCA with that name. No doubt named for her half black, half white face. I didn’t really like the name but since she was almost a year old and there was already enough confusion in her life I kept it. I rarely called her that though and her myriad of nicknames arose […]
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