JIMMY THE RECYCLER 0:00 / 0:00 Gifts from Dad Jimmy the Recycler My 87-year-old father is a yard sale addict. He drives around collecting stuff, then distributes it to family and friends. And, when my father believes you need something, he never takes “no” for an answer. Occasionally, he’ll discover a treasure, like the gilded […]
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SADDLE UP YOUR PIG Photo Courtesy of Donald Giannatti 0:00 / 0:00 Saddle Up Your Pig What will a mother do for love? To what lengths would she go to make her children happy? My sons expressed one great desire as we planned our summer trip to Montana. They wanted to go horseback riding in
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If you have time, please listen to my three minute essay “Biking Whitetop” which aired this morning on NPR-member station WVTF: Biking Whitetop BIKING WHITETOP I’m the one on the left. 0:00 / 0:00 Biking Whitetop I used to be adventurous. I used to be a risk taker. But, at some point, my everyday life took
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BENEDETTA’S BREAD Photo Courtesy of Charles Chen 0:00 / 0:00 Benedetta's Bread My grandmother, Benedetta Boccaccio, is about to turn 104 this January. For much of her life, she lived in a Cape Cod on White Street in Hartford, Connecticut. In her 100th year, my grandmother had to leave her little house. She took a
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If you have time, please listen to my 3 minute essay Locked in the Loo at the Louvre which just aired on NPR-member station, WVTF: PrumsBathroomAdventures LOCKED IN THE LOO AT THE LOUVRE Photo Courtesy of Calvin Craig 0:00 / 0:00 Locked in the Loo What kind of person travels across Europe seeing splendid sights, eating
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LAST BOY LEAVING 0:00 / 0:00 Last Boy Leaving I’ve been raising children for twenty-eight years and now my last boy is leaving. He’s going off to college. Every morning, since he was little, he’d walk out to the mailbox by the road and bring in the newspaper. As he’d come back
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WHERE IN THE WORLD? 0:00 / 0:00 Where in the World? These days we communicate via cell phone, email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and who knows what else. Regardless where our children roam, we expect to be able to stay in touch with them. Furthermore, some of us live under the illusion that because we
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NOONA, MY ITALIAN GRANDMOTHER 0:00 / 0:00 Noona When you hear the words, Italian grandmother, what image comes to mind? A cute little old lady, wearing a crisp, white apron, hair tied back neatly in a bun? Maybe she’s smiling beatifically as she carries a plate of pasta and meatballs. She gently urges you to,
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LOST 0:00 / 0:00 Lost Among my family and friends, I’ve earned the dubious distinction of Most Likely to Get Lost. I started on this wayward path early on, most notably on my first job out of college—counseling juvenile delinquents (many violent) at a state mental institution. My boss asked me to attend a mini-wilderness
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O Christmas Tree Photo Courtesy of Morgane Le Breton 0:00 / 0:00 O Christmas Tree Our first Christmas tree was a pine branch stuck into a white plastic milk jug. That fall, we’d been married for only two months when I came down with meningitis. Distracted by my potential imminent demise, my husband Bruce, did