This past week, I added portraits of Bucky and Shadow to my family shrine. I always thought my dogs belonged there, too, but somehow, it wasn't until I lost Shadow that the time seemed right.


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It's been 35 years now since my last real family Christmas. 1983 was the last time I was with both my mom and my dad for the holidays. I didn't go down to visit them in 1984 (which I now deeply regret), and Dad died at Thanksgiving in 1985. Mom was still home for 3 more Christmases, but the fog of dementia had already started to cloud her mind. She ( Read more... )

I currently have a guest visiting from Australia, and last night, we went out to the local Chinese buffet. My friend and I were seated next to an older couple, and though I never intentionally eavesdrop on other peoples' conversations, something about their voices attracted my attention. They sounded so familiar, but try as I might, I couldn't ( Read more... )

On the first of this month, I managed to fall in my front yard and crack one of my ribs. It's only the second bone I've broken in my whole lifetime, and just like the first one, what caused it was a split-second moment of misjudging the position of one of my limbs in 3-dimensional space, a misapplication of muscle force to correct that misjudgment ( Read more... )

Before we begin, some introductions are in order.
 

This is one of my favorite pictures of my father. It used to hang in the basement office of his elder half-brother, Fred Bauer Nelson (1905-?1965), of Kansas City, Mo. Sometime in the 1980s, Fred's widow, Aunt Grace, sent me the framed portrait. I was delighted! I'd never seen this particular image of my father before ( Read more... )

This Polaroid snapshot is the only picture I have of Dad's two brothers together as adults. At left is Charles William "Bill" Shannon (1917-1976); at right, Robert "Bob" Shannon (1911-1979). The photo was taken Dec. 23, 1955, at (I think) Uncle Bill's home in San Marino, Ca.


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If there are any family members reading this, I just wanted to let you know that an old ashtray from Ed and Bill's casket company is available on eBay now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170424734512   Auction's over ( Read more... )

Christmas loses a lot of its significance without a family to share it with. So, this time of year especially, my mind just naturally wanders back in time to Christmases long past ( Read more... )

Today, fifty years ago, our family moved into our new home at 3255 Rancho El Encino Drive in Covina, California. I was 5 years old then, and I remember that moving day vividly. Dad wanted us to be in the new house by Christmas, and construction was completed just in time. December 19, 1959 (also a Saturday), started with me saying good-bye to my ( Read more... )