When Did That Happen?
In the past year, I’ve met up with a couple of old friends from my first years in college and, even earlier, with my best friend from junior high. It’s strange to reconnect with people from so many...
View ArticleSmile When You Call Us That
Years ago, I had to browbeat my husband into admitting he might possibly be middleaged. When he turned 50, as I recall, he grudgingly stated he was now in his middle years. Since women are more...
View ArticleFailing at Enlightenment
When you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, you realize there are two different groups of people in the world. There are the sick and the healthy. You already know about the healthy....
View ArticleShe Comes On Like a Dream
As I have ranted about more than once in the past, I don’t think much of this 60 is the new 40 racket. It gets filed away in a corner of my mind marked Deluded Baby Boomer Bullshit. I mean, come on....
View ArticleIn Retrospect, I Think I Must Have Messed Up
Don’t tell me your age. Just tell me your relationship with the obituary page and I can make a pretty good guess about how old you are. I spent my youth avoiding the obituaries — a black hole where...
View ArticleThe “But” of the Joke
Let’s go back about 40 years. Here’s how it would happen, again and again. My husband and I would return to West Texas, where both sets of our parents lived, for a holiday or weekend. A day or two into...
View ArticleThrown Out of the Saddle Again
I am very comfortable with my age. Which is sixty-three, 63, or LXIII, if you want to get old-fashioned about it. I am so comfortable that I recently had what I consider to be a big personal...
View ArticleRedemption at the Produce Section
My husband and I are at the grocery store. We’ve been shopping together for decades, so we’re efficient. We barrel through produce, then on to meat and seafood, sprint through cheeses, dairy, and baked...
View ArticleDon’t Smile When You Call Me That
Circa 1950s: When you grow up in Texas, you get used to hearing yourself called young lady if you’re a girl or son if you’re a boy. It’s usually some old codger at the grocery store or the filling...
View ArticleLooking Ahead
Tell me your resolutions about yourself and I’ll tell you your age. If you’re full of plans for self-improvement and mastery — primo fitness! fluency in Spanish! writing a book a year! — you’re a lot...
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