As a badge of my membership in The Presbycusis Club, I was recently fitted with hearing aids. Being a typical aging male, I’d had increasing difficulty understanding my 6-year old grandson, which was quite distressing. On walks, I often couldn’t hear the birdsong that delighted Annie. And in restaurants I tended to tuck my chin […]
After a long illness my mother, Joyce Gale Klein, died on Halloween, 1963. I was fourteen years old. When trick-or-treaters came that evening I remember feeling great embarrassment when my father answered the door and said, “We’ve had a death in the family, so we’re not giving out candy tonight.” I couldn’t understand why he […]
The first time we saw a seal in our bay we were transfixed. We hooted and hollered. We called relatives and emailed friends. We couldn’t believe it. Wow—a seal! Now, twenty-some years later, when I glance out the window and see a seal pop its head up out the water, I barely notice. Or if […]
We all know the story about the guy who scatters pennies wherever he goes. Someone asks him what he’s doing. “Keeping the tigers away,” he says. “But there aren’t any tigers around here!” they protest. “Of course not,” the guy says triumphantly, “it works!” Even though we roll our eyes at the silly man, all […]
Jim was a high school classmate. He was handsome, captain of the football team, and senior class president. His girlfriend, Janet, was the extremely cute head cheerleader. “Remember, Kenny”, Jim said to me one day after school, “these are the best days of our lives. You should really savor them!” Oh no, I thought, if […]
Some weeks ago my wife, Annie, and our friend Vicki dropped me and my bike off in Blyn, WA. Then they drove 27 miles to Port Angeles, where we were to meet up again for lunch. I had a lovely ride until mile 19, when I came to a steep uphill segment. I lost momentum, […]
On a sunny fall afternoon when I was in college, I was driving out in the country. A guy about my age stood by the side of the road hitchhiking. He was wearing a coat and tie, with some sort of folder under his arm. I picked him up. After some preliminary chatting I gently […]
This isn’t about my young grandson swallowing five magnets. It’s about how he was treated by the medical system after he did. The urgent care doctor on Bainbridge Island apologized that there wasn’t an x-ray technician on duty (urgent care without x-rays—huh?). Thus, he directed us to a real hospital. Off we went to St […]
I’ve been painting. Most recently, the two toilet rooms in our house. I resist calling them “bathrooms,” since neither has a bathtub. Calling such a room a “half bath,” is even worse (which half of the tub are we talking about?); “powder room” is about a hundred years out of date, and “restroom” is a […]
As a kid, I was sent to some unexpected summer camps. None were regular Jewish camps, which would have seemed the natural destination for this child of a suburban Jewish family. For several years I went to a YMCA camp on the Chesapeake Bay called Camp Letts. The camp motto was “Let’s Camp!” Maybe that […]