It is the third week of September and I am at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, getting ready to embark on my first backpacking trip in nearly 35 years. The setting is familiar, as…
Posts published in “Essays”
Irene sat in the chair at her hairdressers. She was getting a perm so she'd look good for her upcoming 75th birthday celebration. She was deep into gossip with Marge, the salon's owner, when, in…
Marching for a cause was hardly an innovation in this country by the time the now historic August 1963 March on Washington took place. There had been hundreds of previous processions, some dating to the…
An out of town guest was visiting for a few days and while we were on the back deck dawdling over a sampler of Ritz crackers, Velveeta cheese and PopTart hors d’oeuvres, we discussed Ukiah’s…
I'm not sure that William Saroyan, author, playwright, and genius, can be legitimately described as a San Franciscan, but we like to claim him, although he was born in Fresno and now spends most of…
Ithaca, New York. Next week brings local elections to this college town in the Finger Lakes region of the Empire State. There will be a new mayor and a new town council. A couple of…
My work site was three flights below ground level, taking me into the bowels of the earth. There, beginning at 6 a.m., I began my shift in the surgical suites at the world's largest Naval…