By Sidney S. Stark Can you put yourself in somebody else’s shoes? I’ve never doubted for a moment that I could until last year after I’d been to a lecture given by Elizabeth Strout on the subject of how she structures her novels. In the process of explaining her approach to the start of her… Continue Reading
The Public Clock … The First Time
Where, I wonder, is the civility of the public clock that once dominated the town square, the schoolhouse wall, the railroad station? Try to find time displayed, digital or analog, in an airport, on the street, in an office building. If existing by some chance, the timepiece has stopped running or is, at best, inaccurate.… Continue Reading
Vacation Magic!
By Sidney S. Stark Childhood fantasies are important ways we have of communicating with ourselves. Sometimes vacations taken decades later can cause flashbacks that remind us of some of our most significant imaginings. For example, a writer friend of mine always wanted to be a Texas Ranger when he was a child. As a city… Continue Reading
Grandma Toby (continued from last post)
Grandma was married, her whole life, to Grandpa Harold. He died 25 years ago, but she remained bound to him, always. Theirs was a real love affair—she was swept away by this dashing east coast gentlemen and he never let her down. I can picture him in his blue and white seersucker suit, his polka… Continue Reading
Grandma Toby
Grandma Toby was enormously influential to me. She would fly me out from Colorado for the summer to visit her back east for three or four weeks every year like clockwork. Lazy summers at the neighborhood pool, the shopping mall, the beauty parlor, and reading on the summer porch before a leisurely afternoon nap. “Think… Continue Reading
A Grandmother Called Gom
Our ordinary suburban family life changed dramatically when Gom and Aunt Kitty came to visit. My mother, busy with her brood of four, and little household help, should have been nominated for sainthood. She insisted that the butcher at the A&P give her the very best piece of beef. She polished silver, ironed the linen… Continue Reading