Since I have several weeks off of work, I have some time on my hands: a rare commodity. This morning, instead of spending time brushing up on Spanish for my trip or delving into my stack of applied linguistics books, I found myself making a farewell to Mama Ginna. The still photos span over a decade. The audio is of a phone conversation I had with her shortly before her stroke three years ago. She […]
Read moreCategory: Friends
Sociable undertakings
The Real Mama Ginna
In the mid-1990s, I made an unexpected friend. I was working on my documentary about John Henry, looking for old-timers to tell me what they knew about the legend. In the Talcott, West Virginia post office, I asked the postmaster for suggestions of interesting people in town. He thought for a moment and picked up the phone. A few minutes later I was on my way to meet someone named Mrs. Virginia Crockett. I told […]
Read moreDoctor, Dear Doctor
“Here’s to you, doctor.” That’s what I heard on my radio as I drove home from work yesterday. Oh, shut up about doctors, I yelled at the speakers. But they didn’t listen. You wouldn’t believe what the syrup-voiced woman said next. “You fix broken bones. You mend broken hearts.” I shrieked. There is no doubt the ad was designed for the singular purpose of torturing me, and it was working. “All those 14-hour shifts, all […]
Read moreReturn of the Key
They say you can’t lose something you never had, but that’s not true. You can, and part of yourself along with it. One of my students wore a t-shirt that said, I was a rebel in the 00s. Yesterday my landlady had a (one-sided) conversation with her dog: Do you want to go out? Do you? Do you want to go potty? Well, come on then. Lucie. Let’s go! If you want to go potty, […]
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