Like Sunshine and Rain

Watching the Ice Melt in the Kool-Aid: Or, How I Learned to Eat My Vegetables

2011-09-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish I could talk to the parents I had as a kid and ask them to explain their rationale for some of their parenting decisions back then. Dad is gone. Mom is still around, but today she's just a sweet little old lady who dotes on her grandchildren. Definitely not the 'she-wolf' I grew up with. (Sorry mom, but you were pretty intense in those days.) One question I would ask them

Parenting Old-School: Did Yesteryear's Parents Get it Right?

2011-08-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

By the time I reached sixteen, I came to the conclusion that my mother knew precious little about anything of importance. It seemed to me at the time that her sole purpose in life was to make mine a living nightmare by endlessly displaying to me her total lack of knowledge. She had opinions on everything and felt compelled to share them with me. At sixteen, I decided it was my duty to let this

"The Look" – A Mother's Weapon

2011-07-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Like many adult children, I sometimes look back at my mother and lament over all of her child-rearing 'mistakes.' (Not as much now that I have children of my own.) Nevertheless, I must give her credit for making my brother and I respect her -- particularly her time. She is much shorter than I am, but I have never felt 'bigger than my mother.' Not in height or anything else. Sure, I've

The Perfect Mate

2011-06-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Recent revelations of another 'Husband Gone Wild' have many wondering if there is indeed a perfect union anywhere. I don't know about others, but I can tell you that many years ago, I was fortunate enough to have the perfect mate! I was twelve-years-old at the time and new to Bret Harte Junior High School on Hoover Street in South L.A. Today, they call it middle or intermediate school, but in

Lessons from Dad -- Learned, and Not Learned!

2011-06-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

My dad was not my biological father. As a matter of fact, I didn't meet my dad until I was 9 years old, although he knew me as an infant and was my godfather (another story, another time). My parents divorced when I was small, and I only saw my real father occasionally. I was happy when my mom married this nice man who moved us from Oakland to Los Angeles, where he had a TV repair shop off

In Remembrance

2011-06-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

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Summertime Living is Easy

2011-06-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

So you won't be spending seven days and six nights in a tropical paradise this summer? Your kids probably won't see Mickey and you'll be lucky if you get ten miles out of town. Maybe you have lost your job and are spending all of your free time looking for work. On the other hand, if you are employed, you may be hesitant to take time off, lest you be forgotten! Let's face it -- this is the

Thick Smoke at the Forum

2011-05-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

The smoke was thick at the Forum during a recent Prince concert. At least in the section I was sitting in with my twelve-year-old, who kept asking, "Mom, what is that strange smell?" "Shut up and enjoy the concert!" I wanted to say, but instead I would fan her face periodically as I danced to Prince rocking the house. Still, I felt for my daughter since most of the smoke was coming from

Dressing Up for Church

2011-04-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

Every Easter at church I see small girls dressed in brightly colored dresses with matching Easter bonnets. Sometimes, their moms also have on an equally colorful dress and hat. Not as much as in the past though. Few of us 'dress up' to go to church anymore, unless we are attending a wedding or a funeral. In the past, dressing up for church wasn't just a way of showing off fashions (although

Losing Siblings

2011-04-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

"I'm the only one left. They're all gone." An elderly relative is telling me of the recent death of her 91-year-old sister. I listen as she fondly describes growing up with four siblings and the emptiness she feels now that they aren't around anymore. I am confused because I only knew her to have three siblings. "Oh no," she says. "There were five of us -- I had a baby brother who died

My First Cigarette

2011-02-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

I received my first cigarettes around the time I got my first iron, stove, and refrigerator. This was the sixties, and the appliances were toys. The cigarettes were candy. Looking back, I don't know what bothers me the most these days. The fact that I was being prepared for housework at such a young age, or that I was being prepared to smoke! We see the commercial of the woman with the hole

"Tootsie"

2011-01-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

When I was a child in Oakland, before moving to Los Angeles at age ten, our next door neighbor was a woman everybody called ‘Tootsie.’ I never knew her real name, but I knew from listening to the adults around me that Tootsie was known to hit the bottle every now and then – like everyday! Tootsie had ten children. (Stairsteps, my mom used to call them because that was the phrase she used in