Walking into Ralph’s Shoe Repair on North State Street took me all the way back through the years to my five-year-old self listening raptly as my mom read Pinocchio to me. I imagined Master Geppetto,…
Posts published in “Essays”
(Life Magazine – November 12, 1951) Ten years ago, like many childless couples, Carl and Helen Doss began their family by adopting a boy. When they went back to the agency for more, they were…
Three and one-half short weeks ago, I was benching my weight and doing 15 pull-ups at a go. Granted, I don’t weigh much more than a jockey holding a lapdog, but still. My steps were…
Regular readers of my fetching prose will remember three earlier installments of this piece that dealt with my passion for motorcycle touring, and the tear-jerking tale of best riding bud, Paul, whose wife and trusted…
Greta Thunberg’s four-minute jeremiad at the United Nations this past Monday was delivered not standing behind a pulpit or kneeling on rocky ground. With perfect posture she perched at the front of a bright white…
When I heard that PG&E was going to turn off power in my part of the world my first response was denial. I thought that if I told myself that, it was no biggie. After…
I lived in the Haight because it was a cheap, lower middle-class neighborhood, and a step above the Tenderloin. In 1963 it was a working-class neighborhood with a grocery store, hardware store, magazine store (yes…
