Home Beckons

Aunt Claire and Uncle Ern Hunsinger lived out the Back Road in the 1950s, first house on the left if you’re headed to Sugar Hill from Hollenback. Aunt Claire, like my grandfather, had red hair, and I would sit on her lap on their front porch to count the freckles on her arms. My mother […]

I walk through Clark Furniture in Wysox, on a mission to find a recliner, but am sidetracked by shiny new dining room tables. Their highly polished surfaces enhance the distinctive and rich wood grains of oak, maple, hickory, and walnut. For a moment, I’m tempted, but instead return to my recliner search and spend the […]

When I passed the little white Methodist Church in downtown Hollenback yesterday, I began to think back on Vacation Bible School in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. My brother and our friends gathered there each summer to read short stories of Jonah’s whale, Daniel’s lion, David’s slingshot, and Mary’s Miracle. We worked on art […]

I owe thanks to the Soviet Union for my introduction to Mr. Burke. In October 1957, they launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite into outer space. Sputnik sent out radio signals for 22 days, until its batteries died, and then burned up ten weeks later as it fell from orbit and reentered the earth’s atmosphere. […]

“I dare you to lick its tongue!” My cousin Tracy is fifty days older than me, so he should have known better, but … The crab apple tree stood in the front yard of our farmhouse on Sugar Hill and threw off gobs of yellowish-red apples not much bigger than golf balls. Every year without […]

I picked up the greasy old frying pan, blackened all over and beyond help from years of hot bacon and butter. Dropping it on the counter, the pan careened in two full three-sixties before coming to a wobbly stop like a child’s toy top. Curious, I picked it up again and held it at eye […]

Every few seconds, I ducked as the green balls thudded down around me, thrown off by the two towering black walnut trees on our farm in Sugar Run. As they bounced with varying velocity down the hill, I wondered why no one ever picked them up. Maybe I’ll make a black walnut cake, just like […]

A year ago today, I sat on my father’s porch on Sugar Hill for two hours, content after a noontime meal of grilled hot dogs, Campbell’s baked beans, and macaroni salad from Connie’s Market. He liked to cook for me, and I always enjoyed the step-back-in-time warmth of eating off the well-worn melmac plates of […]

My mother surrendered to lung cancer in June, but spent three more months under its brutal control before its final release. In July, while her mind was still good, I tried a couple of times to talk about what was coming, but she teared up and shook her head. So, we passed each day together […]

My mother planned to leave home one night last week.  She packed eight pairs of socks, two sweaters, the TV remote, and her address book.  By the time she reached the door to her room, she had forgotten where she was going. Home is the Wyalusing Valley Retirement and Personal Care Home where she waits […]