WELCOME TO MEMOIRS AND MUSINGS

We have a Wellesley Class of '58 "Sister List," and we send email about passing events, getting old, advice about topical pain meds, when...

Whatever you do in life, make sure you never, ever, travel to the Tetons and Yellowstone at 85 in the grips of Type A Flu. On Day two,...

This story took place in 2019 and was first recorded on Facebook. I can feel my fear and angst even now. Here is the tale as I told it...

Sunday, I went to our Chico Eagle nest at 7 AM. As I was walking out, I spotted a parent sitting in a tree that hangs over the Sacramento...

Here is the hillside where I look out on an eagle-nest vista. Very often, the sun has not yet reached over the hill, the eagle mom is...

After leaving Philadelphia, leaving Anna and my brief recognition of my love for her, I traveled along my life through the thickets of...

In 1975, I decided to shorten my PhD thesis by two full chapters—enough, I thought, I have proved that Shelley was ironically...

I love my hobby because it lets me off the hook. That phrase popped into my mind unexpectedly. And now, as I turn it over, I discover...

It's 2022 and I'm entering a manuscript into my computer. I wrote a memoir 47 years ago, and decided it deserved to be exhumed. This...

Twenty years after the event outlined in “The Importance of a Second Opinion,” I found myself face to face with another young...

It was 1969 and Sherm brought home a joint to share with me after dinner, the kids were all finally asleep upstairs, Doug now 10, Charles...

You might want to consider taking the kids and going back home to Buffalo. Your husband will no doubt be here for quite some time. I just...

My daughter gave me this self-portrait when she was in high school and it's always on my wall close to my computer. I love looking at it....

Dan Druid had a lovely name and an unlovely fate. He named himself. I never did find out why he turned away from his family and chose a...

When I turned 80, my son Charles then 56, invited me backpacking. I jumped at the chance to spend time with him hiking through the woods....

I met Sara about 25 years ago through mutual tech writer friends in Marin. She’s a published poet from Ireland and was working her day...

The news if full of dire warnings about Omicron, the latest variant. It's reached the Bay area but not Chico, yet. We just had a lovely...

Everyone said that my father was handsome, and I guess he was, in a neat dapper way with his curly hair flattened with pomade, his...

Summer was a rich time for an observer like me. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, I could swim, build drippy castles on sand bars, catch...