January Dreaming
My Mom always hated January. Too cold. Too damp. Too boring. This is the first post in a series: January Dreaming.
Category: Memoirs
Finally, a Trip to K-Paul’s in New Orleans
Paul Prudhomme’s cookbooks started a family tradition, and K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen is part of it.
The Story of Chicken
Family-memory stories gain a patina with age and become the stuff of legend. The Story of Chicken is one of those stories.
(Another) Haiku for Dad, On His Second Birthday in Heaven
My dad was born 80 years ago today in West Texas as the Great Depression was coming to an end in the shadow of another Great War in Europe, a time before regular Americans realized we’d be involved in that war. With that backdrop and […]
Heart-Theater, an Elegy
An elegy for three, from the one remaining. They live in my heart-theater, their voices all trumpets and whispers and hugs.
Haiku: Unexpected Fireworks in Edinburgh and Memories
Business trip serendipity. Fireworks and haiku. Memories. Good times. Edinburgh rocks.
I didn’t know you, Anthony Bourdain.
For people like me, there’s a sense of loss from the abrupt ending of Anthony Bourdain’s huge contribution to the canons of travel, food and cultural understanding, and a reluctant but absolutely unavoidable comparison to our own unwelcome experiences with the savage, raw, rollercoaster aftermath of suicide.
2017 in Glover Gardens: Looking Back to Look Ahead
It seems like yesterday that I was creating this post, Happy New Year! and looking ahead to 2017, and now here we are again, at the brink of yet another new year. I look forward to sharing and connecting with you all in 2018 via the […]
We Call Them “Mema Rolls,” She Called Them “Refrigerator Rolls” – Call My Grandmother’s Delicious Yeast Rolls Anything You Want, but Don’t Call Me Late for Dinner if You’re Serving Them
My grandmother “Mema” fed us in classic grandmotherly style: something was always just out of the oven, just for you. Here’s her legendary yeast roll recipe.
Three Haiku from a Day at the Beach, Remembering Dad
Thanksgiving weekend, eight of us family members spanning three generations packed into my Honda Pilot and headed down to the Bolivar Peninsula where I grew up. We were on a mission to visit Dad’s favorite restaurant down there, and remember him. It was a perfect […]
Looking Back and Finding Joy: Happy 51st, Dear Brother
50-year old photographs celebrate the birthday and memory of one who left us too soon: Steven Thomas Harvell.
Water, Wind and Land: Metaphors for a Geophysicist (remembrance for Grandpa on his 98th birthday)
Reconstructing Grandpa in the museum of my heart – a poem in memory of an amazing man, Thomas Carlyle Holt.
My Brother’s Suicide: Out of the Darkness and Into the Light
I have never said this in a public forum: my brother’s untimely death four years ago was a suicide. Hear my plea: if you’re hurting, please tell someone.
Dad’s Pictures: Happy Birthday to Me
A treasure trove of family photos includes some from my 6th birthday.
Labor Day: Cherries and Empathy at the Beach
Labor Day weekend of 2000 was the last time I saw my Mom; we shared cherries and empathy at the beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula.
Two “First Day of School” Stories
Two little stories about the first day of school range from joy to violent despair.
