When I was twenty I went to visit friends in Detroit. I had on faded blue bell bottoms, a cropped tee-shirt, and underwear. There were motorcycles at their house. One looked exactly like the chopped bike in the movie “Easy Rider”. We gathered around this motorcycle and stood around with time on our side. I… Continue reading Uneasy Rider
My parents had a mixed breed dog before and then after I was born. The dog looked like a Cocker Spaniel. His name was Snuffy. My dad worked nights for a time, and my mother would be alone with Snuffy. There was a little window in our front door. Snuffy often went to sit by… Continue reading Snuffy
Horses confound me. Our daughter had a preschool friend who was given a little pony. Her friend did not care at all about the pony. Our daughter did. We visited it in a pasture nearby, with carrots in our hands. We found a neighbor near to our home. She had a stable of six horses… Continue reading Saddle Up
My dad spent hours in car dealerships when shopping for a new car. The salesmen saw him coming and probably drew straws on who would try to finally sell him a car. My dad was a turd about the whole charade. The unlucky salesman would show him cars in the lot and he would look… Continue reading Our Volkswagen
As a teen I rode horses on well worn trails. They were very tame horses. Older, I convinced my husband to go trail riding one fateful day. He swung onto his horse like a cowboy. My horse thought my blonde hair was hay, so we were delayed for a time. I finally ended up in… Continue reading Horsing Around
I can still remember sitting in a pew at church. It smelled like old wood rubbed by many hands over the years. The priest was Father Thomas and I had a girl’s crush on him. I sweated as I reviewed my catechism classes on how to make a confession. I racked my brain for something… Continue reading Confession
When we moved to Connecticut I had to go back to the manual on how to parallel park a car. I had not honed the skill over the years. I drove to Mystic to go to one of the quaint stores to stare at all the collections of fun things that I covet. I drove… Continue reading Parking Pandemonium
In the spring following my first year of teaching Kindergarten I began my Master’s Degree in English Literature. I dragged myself out of bed to be at the university at the eight a.m. class. Milton’s “Paradise Lost” was the size of a dictionary and the Bible. The class was titled Victorian Literature. My goal was… Continue reading Really Lost In “Paradise Lost”
Lawn care was my mother’s avocation. It was the green carpet of the neighborhood. My girlfriend’s house had a visual of my house and its lawn. My mother hated ground voles. These dug tunnels and holes in her flawless lawn. It was war, for my mother. One sunny day my mother raced around with the… Continue reading Poison Peanuts
My dad, bless his soul, smoked big, fat cigars. I was his sidekick and went where he went. One of these places was the gas station. He smoked that big, fat cigar while filling the car with gas and filling red gas cans for the boat and lawnmower with gas. He ignored the “NO SMOKING”… Continue reading Giving It The Gass
Sharon Clemons 