Contents: February 2010

Thoughts from the Editor for February 2010

Stories

Pipe Dreams
~ Kate Lydon

            "What should I do, John?"
            "Whatever you do, Joey, don't flush the toilet!" John warned.
            "I'll get Mum!" Joey shouted.
            "No, she'll get mad," John said. "Listen, Joey, go get a rope!"

A Visit with Grandma Hoch
        ~ Dori Hoch

“I haven’t seen my mom in a while. How is she?”

I quickly tried to think of a way to dismiss the fact that Nannie has been gone now for over thirty years. “Oh, she’s about as good as you can expect,” I said.

Therapy in Everyday Life
~ Mary Porth

It’s true I usually presented a slightly more polished image to the world. But were vulnerability and old pajamas such a bad thing?

Imagining Eliza
~ Patricia Zita Krisch

I traveled several times from the east coast to California with my daughter when she was a baby and then a toddler. Flying all day alone with a small child was always a tiring day. But it was only one day.
How many days or weeks did it take Eliza to travel with her four little children across a large part of the continent?

The Jitterbug
~ Jackie Echteler

This will probably sound a little bit twisted to you, but one thing we enjoyed doing as a family, was going to my Aunt Edna’s and Uncle Bill’s house to observe their unhappy union. It was like going to a verbal prizefight! Now, I had been exposed to plenty of profanity at home, but my aunt and uncle had elevated bad language almost to an art form.

Autobiography of Nathaniel Watson Ladd, Part 5

When I left there, savings that I had made gave me $3.75, and that was really my salvation, because I had no one really to help me and had to depend on myself.

Poetry

Joe Quinton: 4 Poems

        CALL IT DAWN

        analysis

        WINTER

        FOURTH