by admin | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog
Born in 1952, I have no direct memory of the 1918 “Spanish Flu” pandemic that took the lives of up to 100 million people. My memory of that disease is a borrowed one from my Aunt Molly who told me the story of how Great Aunt Jo, a baby nurse who worked for wealthy...
by admin | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog
Growing up in a close-knit community where kinship lines often overlapped; attending a Catholic primary school where Mass was a daily requirement; and serving as an altar boy following my First Communion in 1959, makes it likely that I attended almost every funeral...
by admin | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog
In September 1970 when I began college at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, it was as a Fine Arts and Theater major—a choice for which I was underprepared, especially when compared to my classmates, all of whom had graduated from large urban schools where a...
by admin | Jan 7, 2020 | Blog
With ten children in my family and limited private space in our home, the attic was a favorite haunt for me, especially in inclement weather when it was impossible to play outside and otherwise difficult to get beyond calling reach of a parent or nagging distance from...
by admin | Dec 24, 2019 | Blog
In Indonesian there are several words for “souvenir.” One is oleh-oleh: gifts brought back from a trip, often snacks particular to the region visited (tempé crisps from Malang, for instance, or fermented cassava from Purwakarta). Another is cinderamata: keepsake items...
