Afikomen in Sterlington, Louisiana
Daffodils sprouting in bright yellow bunches always have always signaled for me spring and Passover. Matzah plays a big role here, the unleavened bread symbolic of the Jewish exodus from enslavement in Egypt about 3,300 years ago. (“Hurry up, Sadie. We don’t have time for the bread to rise. Grab your hat and let’s go!”) […]
A Doll Goes Shopping at Walmart
For weeks, I had been reading up on Walmart, absorbing everything from Sam’s biography to reports about how the global chain was destroying labor guarantees put into place by the New Deal. I wanted to understand how Walmart had evolved from a variety store to an international behemoth hated and loved by all. Call it […]
Song for Guns & License
Paper mill town closed down. Sporting goods store the big draw. Hunters shop for camouflage, a new barrel gauge. Deer season. Six months here, I’m in a red chair with a red number, clutch a California driver’s license, my ID for forever. Insurance says I have to turn myself in, time to cheer for the […]
The Mustang
I’m on vacation from Chicago and visiting my girlfriend in Louisiana. Joy and I met in college. The plan is to drive to New Orleans the following weekend for the Jazz Festival. She let me borrow her car so I can pick up a few things for our trip. She says to watch out […]
On Eastlake Road Thinking About Marie Richard
I’ve passed through a rite of motherhood that has spanned some twenty years. No more deadlines, meetings, no project emails that must be answered. I’ve retired from the every day world to enter a different one. And with the gift of quiet has come clarity. What do I want to do now? I’ve always wanted […]
On Eastlake Road Thinking About Marie Richard
I’ve passed through a rite of motherhood that has spanned some twenty years. No more deadlines, meetings, no project emails that must be answered. I’ve retired from the every day world to enter a different one. And with the gift of quiet has come clarity. What do I want to do now? I’ve always wanted […]
Living Around the Bayou
Down the street, rather along Highway 165, I turned off at Cross Keys Bank to open an account and deposit a check from West End Press in payment for my trip to the Albuquerque Cultural Conference. (Maybe my life is changing.) Cross Keys is a local community bank with origins in St. Joseph, Louisiana and […]
Welcome to the Sterlington, Louisiana Dirt Track Races
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d be living in the rural south. When I say never, I really mean never. I’m a city girl whose horizon has always been shaped by buildings, never trees; secondly, I’m a Jewish girl, which means that large urban centers are the places where the majority […]
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
I found the Sterlington, Louisiana Library, a new building only five years old, located a hop, skip and a jump away from where I now live. A big rig got impatient with me looking for the right turn and blew his fog-horn honk up my jeans, gave me the startlement treatment, while I thought, what […]
Standing at the Pizza Altar
Walmart in Monroe, where I walked through what seemed like a hundred brands of everything and anything before I found, in between the frozen chicken and packages of lasagna, the frozen pizza aisle. Full disclosure here. I’ve never shopped for food at Walmart, maybe in search of a light bulb or toilet paper, but not […]