nostalgia – Going On 40

Is That a Lot?

To have no concept—of time, of money—it’s a magical state. I can barely remember it myself. Like Marty McFly’s family photo: still there, but fading fast. “I got a gumball. It was twenty-five dollars,” Evelyn said, dead serious. “Twenty-five dollars?” I asked. She’d just returned from the bank’s gumball machine—the holy grail for a five-year-old—updatingContinue reading “Is That a Lot?”

Fleeting Gems

“That’s why we don’t name them.” Dave consoles me after we find the second dead duck of the week. Whereas when the first vanished, I could play pretend that she was backstroking in a jacuzzi pond with a flock of male suitors and snacking on grubs, I didn’t have the luxury with the second. ItContinue reading “Fleeting Gems”

It’s All Gravy

Spotting a woman tucking pillows into white covers next to a van in the Fred Meyer parking lot, I felt compelled; to pull into an adjacent spot to chat with her about road life and to share memories of making my bed at rest areas and National Parks in my Westfalia Vanagon. Peering in isContinue reading “It’s All Gravy”