Writings

Mother was never happier than when she was “fooling” Daddy. She loved to pack something crazy in his lunch box, especially on April Fools day. And, of course, Daddy was never happier then when he could pretend the joke, whatever it was, didn’t work. One of the longest-running tricks she played on him was her… Read more: Chapter 17: Getting a Charge Out of It

McCall’s magazine, which Mother bought every month, had a paper doll in it. You could cut out cute little Betsy McCall and her themed or seasonal outfits, paste her on cardboard and …voila! A paper doll. We were hooked. Gone were the baby dolls and bride dolls – they only had one outfit (this was before Barbie).… Read more: Chapter 16: Down in the Dumps

There are moments in life when the only reasonable response is laughter. I learned this lesson pretty early on. Humor has saved me from experiencing pain, public humiliation, grief, and even facing life-threatening situations. Without doubt, laughter has defined me as a person.  Growing up on a farm in Minnesota, in a family with four… Read more: Chapter 15: Burr Balls and Soap Bombs

People look at me oddly when I say, quite nonchalantly, “Oh, I grew up with a ghost.” But it’s true. Not long after we moved into The Place, it became evident. We had been told the stories about the original and longtime owner, Charlie Sykora. We were told that after his kids grew up and… Read more: Chapter 14: Good-Time Charlie

If you’ve ever watched The Little Rascals, you’ll have a sense of what my sister, Linda, and I were like when we were kids. I’m not saying we were ‘rascals’ per se, I’m just sayin’ those little rascals had nothing on us, that’s for sure!

 My sister, Linda and I lived for summers. The minute… Read more: Chapter 13: We Didn’t Think It Through

After two winters on the Elseneter Place, including a near-death experience for the entire family when Daddy incorrectly vented a gas heater upstairs where we slept, (and hadn’t he gone to plumbing and heating school?) Grandad Mares got fed up with our living situation. He generously bought an old farm, about two miles out of… Read more: Chapter 12: The Place

Who knew we were Catholic? In Oklahoma City, where we were born, we were too young to know that. In Wichita, where we lived when I was 3 and 4, we lived nowhere near a Catholic Church. Mother walked to the nearest one all dressed up in her high heels every Sunday that she could,… Read more: Chapter 11: The Catholic Thing

It’s hard to imagine life without television now, but we did not have one until about 1955. The small black-and-white TV that daddy brought home soon became the center of our universe. We were fascinated and there were so many good shows on. Mother liked “Queen for a Day,” where women told their sob stories… Read more: Chapter 10: The TV Generation

For one whole winter I entertained myself by scaring Mother (see Scaredy Cat), and watching her get fat. By spring, when my sisters finished school, I was more than ready to jump into summer – climbing trees, getting ‘lost’ in the woods, and going fishing down at the pond not far from our house. Mother… Read more: Chapter 9: It’s a Boy!

When we were little and would get bored, especially on freezing winter days, Mother would tell us, “Make your own fun!” Much of the year, that was easy. Little sister Cindy and I had endless ways to have fun outdoors.We even turned an ant colony in the sandy ditch by our driveway into an ant… Read more: Chapter 8: The Attic and the Big Sister

In 1953, just as we were getting used to Wichita, Daddy finished his night school to learn plumbing and heating – and decided he didn’t like his boss at Boeing – so we moved again. This time, we headed to Green City, a tiny town in northern Missouri, near my paternal grandparents – the Piggs.… Read more: Chapter 7: Cowpie Hoppin’

From earliest memory my little sister, Cindy, was part of me. I was sixteen months old when she was born, like me, in Oklahoma City. Daddy, who was selling real estate at the time, did what he usually did. He dropped Mother off at the hospital entrance to have the new baby. He never was… Read more: Chapter 6: In the Beginning

Mother loved to play jokes. She was the Queen of Laughter, and I learned early on it was better to be part of the joke then to be its intended victim. In the winter of 1954-55 I was four going on five years old. My sisters, Linda and Andrea, were both going to school and… Read more: Chapter 5: Scaredy Cat