Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

During a beautiful fall weekend in 2001 the Chicken family hosted an open house. Twenty minutes before the start of the open house, someone saw Algernon streak across the kitchen floor. Algernon was one of S’s three pet mice.  The mice were okay, as pets go, except for Algernon, who should have been named Houdini…

Butter Files: Drug Lords

Note:  My father was born into a large farming family in central Maine. He grew up, married twice (consecutively, not at the same time), and had five kids.  Everyone called him “Butter”.  Butter Files stories are about his side of the family (as opposed to the Vi Chronicles, starring my mom, Violet.)I had two great…

Vi Chronicles: How to Raise a Thief

Hi World, My  mother, Violet, had two sisters and seven kids. I was the youngest of my mother’s kids, and the youngest cousin. On the day I learned to steal, the three sisters, Vi (my mother), Tee and Lula,  found themselves a pick-up truck and a willing teen-age driver.  They packed a cooler with ice,…

A Rite of Passage

“Ok, littleb, are you ready?  We’ll do it together.  3…2…1…and go!” We each pop a piece of gum into our mouth.   We’d just been to CVS to pick up a few supplies, and littleb’s  attention was drawn to the gum, as it has been the last few times we’ve been to a store.  Usually,…

Hi World, A few weeks before my daughter gave birth she asked me what I wanted to be called. Did I want to be called Nana?  Grandma? Grammie? MeeMaw? “What kind of baby are you having?”, I asked. “What do you mean?” S asked.  “Like, am I having a chicken baby or an asparagus baby or…

Don’t try this at home, Kids…

Hi World, Littleb became very attached to his bicycle helmet and wanted to wear it to school. Because we are sensitive new age parents who never stifle our child’s sense of self and creative expression regardless of how maladjusted it makes our entire family look, we let him.  He is going through a super hero stage and we…