Author’s note: when you publish two birth announcements, you must not miss the third. The next year. Didn’t. The Publisher and the Mechanical Superintendent agreed. She would name the girls. He would name a boy. Michaela was the feminine form of Michael, a boy’s name in the running since the first born. Lara was chosen for the neighbor who baby sat Sheryl and also named our rescued dog ‘The Brown Bomber.’ ‘Mickey’ didn’t lead cheers,
Category: Family
BAWL for Cindy
If you publish a birth announcement for daughter one, then you publish a BAWL for Cynthia Elam the next year. As a string correspondent for Time magazine, I could also make $25 if I sent an accepted West Texas story idea to sister-publication, LIFE picture magazine. Needed the money with another mouth to feed. Many photographs for this edition, which took less time and were quicker than writing words.
Button, Button
Honest confession. I’m not the only at the Old Folks Boarding House whose fingers don’t handle shirt and blouse buttons very well. And she’s two years younger, both of us in our nineties. Tried to remember that game we played with the four children: “Button, button, who’s got the button?” Number Three Daughter remembers the phrase, but not the game. Nor does Dad. So I Googled: The children start by sitting on the bottom stair
Books for Young
Grandparents, hope you can do what my oldest granddaughter and I have arranged. I buy and Kara sends children books to the great-grandchildren when they enter our family. “Tutu Kane”—that’s my Grandfather name in Hawaiian—books arrive at birthdays and Christmas. Helps that Kara is an elementary teacher with children books knowhow. And that she operates a spreadsheet with 30-some lines telling birthdays and addresses. Great-grandchild Jade had started her elementary school second grade. She’s nearby
First Born
I wonder what he’ll think of meI guess he’ll call me the “old man” Only a song, but the “Billy’s Soliloquy” lyrics capture the anticipation, and apprehensions, of the approaching father’s first born. Sung on Broadway’s Carousel— six years before Maxine gave birth to our first of four children. First fathers telephone the relatives, pass out cigars. This one also wrote, printed and mailed BAWL birth announcements. BAWL was a small edition—with mother and daughter’s
Proclamation
When both your ‘like-family’ nephew and your son are mayors, you can’t have a surprise visit without a proclamation.
Snow Cone
Sitting on the porch this 2022 July 4 afternoon when daughter served a ‘popsicle’, ice with syrup encased in plastic. Whoa. Thought frozen popsicles came on a stick. Also think shaved frozen ice packed into a paper cone, your choice of syrup on top, was invented before they froze ice around a stick. Back when my mother-in-law Ila took orders for your color of syrup. Children with a quarter to spend while celebrating the summer
Identical Twins
Yarns about identical twins came when a daughter and son married. Then a blog reader and writer wrote a similar one. You can’t tell a difference between Jack’s twin sons by previous marriage. Even with recent beards, they are now physical ed teachers who look alike. Their high school teacher couldn’t tell a difference either. She consulted their father. Mister Wood, your sons are in different classrooms, but they each scored identical answers to my
Grandma’s First Flight
Grandmother Nelise Elam was 79 years old when I flew from Chicago to Knox in Northern Indiana and took her up for her first airplane ride. She lived across the street from the grass runway where I landed in 1960. The runway has since been replaced with a shopping center and modern school buildings. A paved Knox airfield now lies outside town. I had flown my Cessna 182 there to visit relatives after Maxine and
Little Brother
Three daughters often scared this ole dad but from the stories I have heard, they got their comeuppance when their little brother arrived, started walking, talking and tormenting. Oldest sister Sheryl remembers brat troubles when her high school boyfriend arrived. Little Kelson hid behind the couch where the couple smooched. When discovered, her high school date spanked him. After that encounter, her date just gave the kid a quarter to go away. Middle sister Cynthia