I bring a milkshake every other we… to an old man in a nursing home, a refugee from Germany who paid me 50 cents to cut his grass when I w… a kid in Chicago after WWII.
Alvin didn’t want to be anybody else. He didn’t want to be himself either. Money wasn’t a problem.
We have something in common, a fellow I talk to now and then. We’re about the same age and perhaps the only ones in the diner who think our past lives are interesting. So when the two o...
My wife’s amazed when I station myself at the computer writing this or that despite a hound dog
Raul is a kind man who plays marimba in a salsa band at LA clubs late into the night. Some afternoons he plays
When Fred was a boy, he heard his… talk about Grandpa going to town d… to sell the bounty of his harvest. On his farm he had eggs, butter an… vegetables and meat. He’d buy suga…
They’re getting older, five brothers and sisters, all with degrees, jobs, families, nice homes, good lives, happier than most except when they must
In 1962, I was a caseworker, not a social worker, in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project in Chicago. In that era, the difference between a caseworker and a social worker was simple. A soc...
From my stool in the diner I watc… the old woman with elm tree arms command the big booth in back and roar for a menu, take a half hour to read it
Wally read something he thought good advice for those who lose the race. “Make friends of the
No, Freddie can’t say he mourned when his father died and his father’s third wife found Freddie’s number and gave him a call to give him the news. His father had been responsible, worke...
In 1962 my father toiled in Quinc… two weeks, no more, and saw no blacks except for two young ladies who moved like swans
Harry and Grace had a carousel of marriage while it lasted. There were arguments galore and children by the score or so the neighbors thought
World War II was over but still fresh in the minds of folks who li… in Bill’s hometown in the Ozarks. Independence Day was important. It called for a celebration.
Yes, fifty years ago today it happened. Quite a story. He was your favorite uncle and he liked you a lot too. You were all torn up.