by Jody | Family, Human Condition
Recently my sister, Buffy, sorted through a box of old old pictures and came upon one taken of our aunt, Imy, in about 1924 on the day she graduated from high school. She is dark-haired and serious in the photo, wearing her cap and gown in the same pose that every...
by Jody | Human Condition
At one time in my youth, I became a military wife. The day I was issued an ID so I could get past the guards and onto the base, I was also handed a booklet about what was and was not considered to be acceptable behavior on the part of a spouse or dependent. The...
by Jody | Family, Human Comedy, Human Condition
“The Welsh are dark.” That phrase has been spoken and followed by knowing nods in our family — when there were still heads to nod — for many years. My father’s mother, our paternal grandmother, had dimmed the light in her eyes by the time...
by Jody | Family, Human Comedy, Human Condition
On the day I was to start kindergarten, I woke up with the mumps. On the day I was to start kindergarten, my father woke up with them, too. I was sick, to be sure. But he was REALLY sick, and my mother called the doctor, who arrived in a flurry of concern and...
by Jody | Arizona Life, Human Condition
For at least ten years, there has been a man I presume to be homeless who I encounter from time to time near the stores and strip malls that I go to. He has now become sunburned the color of tobacco juice, but I think that at one time his hair had been light brown....
by Jody | Arizona Life, Human Condition
I was coming up the access road next to the freeway near my home. I had been to the grocery store, and my distress at the current cost of food was still fresh. It was 113 degrees, late summer on the desert, and the drivers around me seemed more aggressive than usual....
