I remember cutting roses for Grandma from the giant bush by her side door. I remember the pastel pillow mints in the crystal candy dish on the sideboard. I remember “Chicken in a Biskit” crackers in the kitchen, and Planters peanuts on the coffee table at cocktail time. I remember her record player, the size of a … Continue reading I remember St. Simons Island
I was unloading the dishwasher the other day, and my wedding ring clinked against a glass bowl, making a sound so similar to a sound from childhood that I was transported instantly to a motorboat, zipping through briney rivers, the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. I even caught a whiff … Continue reading A Small Thing My Dad Never Knew (R)
I’ve been reading through my diaries, and have found plenty of scandal that made me laugh so hard I cried*: We all hate Crystal now. Guess what! We’re having a prom! (April 15, 1986; 11 years old) We don’t hate Crystal. I’m glad because she’s a lot nicer than Hilga [who determined who we hated … Continue reading Diary or Memory: Which is the Reliable Narrative?
I remember boiled peanuts; I remember them from the barrier islands of Georgia. On hot Saturdays in summer, my family loaded our boat with beach chairs, coolers, canvas tote bags filled with towels, Doritos, and Mom’s chocolate chip cookies, and we motored off across the rippled brown water of tidal rivers. Crusted salt glittered on … Continue reading I remember boiled peanuts
When I was four we lived in a big white house on 2nd Street, East Beach, on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Beside our house was a meadow with sand dunes so old, you couldn’t see the white sand, only the wild vegetation that had taken root. You couldn’t see the ocean on the other side, … Continue reading When I was four
The sky above turned slowly from azure to the delicate blue-green of a robin’s egg, and the unearthly stillness of rural twilight came stealthily down about her. – Margaret Mitchell I’m reading Gone With the Wind again, and it is making me homesick for the red clay of middle Georgia, where our family traveled from … Continue reading Chasing fireflies in rural twilight
Butterfly Mind 