66x365

New Site

2007-02-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

I can't give up the daily word-limited writing so have started a new blog. If you want to peek, go here: http://67x365.blogspot.com

Same format, one more word, different subject. I'll be writing 67 words about something I've observed the previous day. I hope this exercise will make me a little more observant of the daily world around me.

Thanks again to Dan, the originator of this fun.

365/365 FBH

2007-02-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

She thinks that changing her mind might be a sin, plans plans and wakes up early to put things off. Avoiding mirrors and make-up counters, she feels the draw of places where people laugh. On the day before her sixty-seventh birthday, Fran realizes that almost all she is came as gifts from those people who gathered around yearly cakes and helped her blow out the candles

364/365 Aunt Ruby

2007-02-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

I always thought we were much alike. We shared a family sense of humor. When a persistent nosebleed week kept me from attending her sister’s funeral, she didn’t approve and sent me a scathing letter – how dare you, she said. Crying, I called to further explain. Forgiveness was given. Yet, as I pack up Valentine cookies to send her, the tape still has a sharp edge.

363/365 Kathleen

2007-02-03T04:03:00.000-08:00

Who’d think you could have so much fun with newspaper, glue and a balloon? But as we slipped on the floor and created our masterpiece, we did. This middle child who loved crafty things was eight, I was thirty-something. Kathleen’s a grown-up teacher now with a child of her own. As we sit waiting for lunch, someone mentions piñata and our eyes light up in unison.

362/365 Fat Buddy

2007-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

He calls and it is 1962 again. His youthful enthusiasm hasn’t left – you can hear it in his voice. He tells me his wife is not having the lung transplant and is struggling with breast cancer but they are on the road again in their RV. I know he’s smiling and wonder how. Like sea glass, Fat Buddy seems to gather luster from all the tossing.

361/365 Brad

2007-02-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

The older girls in the neighborhood planned a formal dinner party for their charges that summer evening. While the adults moved from house to house for a progressive dinner party; the kids gathered at our house. The teens, dressed in formal gowns fussed with decoration and food. Tow-haired Brad arrived wearing a tiny suit and carrying a bouquet of wildflowers – a Norman Rockwell come to life.

360/365 Pearl Buck

2007-01-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

My shaking hand reached toward her chest to pin on a corsage. She said, "How pretty. "I said, “I loved your book.” She didn’t say, “Which one?” She did say, “Thank you.” She’d sponsored a classmate and was speaking at our graduation. I don’t remember one word of her speech. What I remember was meeting a gracious woman and not stabbing her with a corsage pin.

359/365 Peggy

2007-01-31T05:40:00.000-08:00

“Don’t call me Eng Eng,” she says in the yearbook. Peggy – sponsored by Pearl Buck - was a nursing school classmate who smiled often, studied diligently and cooked the foods of home in our tiny dorm kitchen. When she asked the hospital chef for some soy sauce, he gave her a gallon. I’ll bet it’s still there. After her very long voyage, she longed for home.

358/365 Dr. Von D.

2007-01-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

His huge hands obliterated the tiny faces he worked on. Using his own surgical instruments, he carefully, tenderly repaired cleft palates and hare lips. I guess no one ever told him that his ham hands made him an unlikely candidate for this work – a stroke of good luck for the children whose lives he changed. In an age before insurance, he often did this for free.

357/365 Leslie

2007-01-29T06:23:00.000-08:00

We met in a park – each toting two daughters. We began to gather as families for holidays, weekends and just because. After several years of friendly family bliss, her husband confided in me that a divorce was imminent. “Don’t say anything.” he pleaded. I agreed to wear that veil of subterfuge. Thirty years later, conversations with Leslie are awkward - still blurred by that veil. I’m sorry.

356/365 Henry

2007-01-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

He’s onstage wearing a costume too big for his junior high frame. It’s Henry’s first show – he’s in the ensemble and glad to be here. By the third year, Henry’s a ‘regular’. He stops me in the lobby and announces, “My character has a name!” - a big step up. Henry graduates this year. His senior project is a fundraiser for the theater that welcomed him.

355/365 Man in Beige Car

2007-01-27T06:49:00.000-08:00

Cars wait behind him as I stop. He’s stopped where there’s no stop sign. I wait for him to move. He finally makes a right turn. He stops at the next intersection. There’s no stop sign. He’s signaled left but isn’t turning …not turning. He pulls to the right. I wait. I pass him. This man should be home in his recliner. Who will tell him?

354/365 Mary

2007-01-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

Mary had a knowing smile. During the day, she fluffed cushions, dusted and let air into the dark mahogany-paneled house where she worked. At dinner, she served the family meal. There were always complaints from kids about the food, screams of “He fingered my potatoes” and a general sense of mayhem. Mary never raised her voice; she just smiled knowingly and went back into the kitchen.

353/365 Lori

2007-01-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

From the back seat, Lori asks, “Are you going to write about me?” We’ve been talking about the 365 project. “If you do, use _______.” I don’t know Lori well; we’ve only met twice, but I know this: she inhales the world deeply and exhales enthusiasm, loves and rescues cats, is drawn to thrift store antique linens and wants me to use this word - bodacious.

352/365 Sally

2007-01-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

We met through a one-foot square door that connected our offices. Through that door we passed mail, lab specimens, gossip and friendship. Sally was a young widow, struggling to raise three teenage kids. I was a newly-wed and new to Virginia. She tried and failed to teach me how to southern-fry chicken but her laughter taught me how to approach life with a gentle southern grace.

351/365 Richard

2007-01-23T06:29:00.000-08:00

My best friend’s older brother brought his Notre Dame friends home during break. We spied on them, secretly trying to impress the ‘college boys’. For a while, Richard parodied song lyrics; the words were not politically correct but they were funny. Funnier still, he became a presidential speech writer. Richard’s best speech, however, was the eulogy he delivered at his sister’s funeral. Not a dry eye…

350/365 Marie

2007-01-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

“She’ll have a home with me,” she said when her mother’s confusion worsened. They added Mom’s room onto the house and Mom moved in. Marie began to write about her mother’s journey. “It helps,” she said. Marie took her mother along to meetings and parties and she wrote. Marie watched as the mother she knew vanished. Marie wrote. Marie kept a journal and a promise.

349/365 Judy

2007-01-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

She lived across the street and was the only other little girl on the block so we became ‘best’ friends. We loved the willow tree in her backyard and sat under it to play, hoping that her big brother would come out and carve us a willow whistle. If he did, we spent the rest of the day trying to coax it to make a sound.

348/365 Uncle Harry

2007-01-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Brain damaged at birth, Harry wasn’t as book bright as his brothers and sisters but I’ll bet he knew much more about the inner workings of a bicycle than all of them put together. In my memory, his bicycle leans against the cabin he and my grandfather shared. He flashes the trademark family grin. Hanging from his work grimy hand is a newly greased bicycle chain.

347/365 Ann

2007-01-19T05:22:00.000-08:00

Every town has a Grande Dame, Ann is ours. The telephone company her father began in the 1920's still thrives. The family foundation’s generosity has earned them naming rights to buildings all over town. Because her image is important to her, she dresses up for every occasion in clothes she bought to last forever. Dressed for the opera, she shows up at the polls to vote.

346/365 Merrill

2007-01-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

With his well-trimmed curly hair, those horn-rimmed glasses and the flash of bow tie, Merrill was the least likely drama coach. But he managed to squeeze a monthly performance from the Drama Club and most of the time he did it smiling. No matter how dismal the play was, our captive auditorium audience sat rapt, knowing this was way better than the drone of History class.

345/365 Dr. D

2007-01-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

He always looked Columbo-rumpled and unhappy as he mooched snacks and grabbed charts. Being an oncologist isn’t a jolly job. One evening, I asked if he’d insert a catheter in a comatose patient whose shy penis made the job almost impossible. At bedside, he waved the catheter and sang, ‘Come out, come out wherever you are’. I heard his laughter for the first and only time.

344/365 Uncle Charlie

2007-01-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

Raising a family of five on a bartender’s salary isn’t easy and times were often rough. Uncle Charlie took his ‘head of the household’ status seriously and barked orders for quiet from the family dinner table. On Sundays, Charlie’s Mom came to dinner and the real ‘boss’ was revealed as her invisible thumb and forefinger pinched his earlobe and showed him the right way – her way.

343/365 The Cheese Nazi

2007-01-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

We’re gathered in the grocery store’s warehouse to make subs – a fundraiser. We find a torn slice of cheese and eat it. We come up cheese short and ask at the deli for another slice. The Cheese Nazi raises her eyebrows so high they get caught in her paper hairnet. “I gave you enough!” she says but gives me one slice. We run out of tomatoes…

342/365 Logan

2007-01-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

A wee boy peeks over the shoulder of his latest best friend, surveying the crowd. He’s already met many of them. We’ve heard not a peep from him during the party so everyone wants to hold him. Logan, the newest member of out theater family is the son of a lighting designer. I watch as an infant boy works the crowd and basks in the spotlight

341/365 Lauren

2007-01-16T06:28:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, she sat in the box office selling tickets and falling in love. Three years ago, they married. Yesterday she arrived at my door with Logan, their new son. She says, “It’s good to have a child born around the holiday season. He’s met a lot of people really early in his life and he likes them.” She hands Logan to me. He smiles.

340/365 Connie

2007-01-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

This woman will use a pencil until the wooden part is equal in length to the eraser on top. I’ve seen her build sets from entirely scavenged material. “It’s a shame to waste things,” she says. And so, when I ask about her grandchildren and she tells me of the made-up games she plays with them, I see that she creates good memories from nothing, too.

339/365 Another Rich

2007-01-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

Four young men stand alongside a two-seater car. They want to take a short trip. The dilemma, of course, is how to fit all of them into this little car. One slithers into the jump seat, two sit in the front and Rich, the largest of the lot, chooses the trunk. They drive off - Rich’s hand holding the trunk lid, his youthful exuberance accordioned inside.

338/365 Rich

2007-01-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

We had a difference of artistic opinion. He, a lover of horror and gore, felt that blood should flow freely during a scene. I felt that suspense and creepiness would be better. To my surprise, there were people who agreed with me. Rich left the meeting unhappy, crestfallen. I found him sulking on the outside wooden steps – a young boy who’d lost his new puppy.

337/365 Another Sue

2007-01-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

Across the valley, the sun lights the village of Eyeries - a swash of brightly colored polka dots .This is part of the view from Anam Cara, the artist’s retreat that Sue has created in a land all green and sheep, hedgerow and rock, history and superstition. She serves up comfort with each meal. From the coop in the yard, the First Ladies cluck their approval.

336/365 Sue

2007-01-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

My cousin had rheumatic fever as a child and when it was diagnosed late, was sent to a state hospital for a several month recuperation. One of five children, she discovered early what separation feels like. Now she watches hawk-like over her ninety-three year old mother’s daily nursing home care. She knows it is what her mother did for her and she is repaying the debt.

335/365 Chess

2007-01-08T05:20:00.000-08:00

This three-year-old loved Cheerios and tried so hard to get them from the wheeled walker’s tray to her mouth. Her spastic, Cerebral Palsy contracted muscles didn’t often hit the mark but she was persistent – smiling broadly under a shock of blond, curly hair when success struck. At day’s end, when her mother arrived, Chess was scooped up and carried off through a carpet sea of ohs.

334/365 Shannon

2007-01-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

It was a sweltering summer. It was her first lead role. As she stood on the stage in that non air-conditioned frame building, the audience believed her when she sang “It’s hot out here…,” as the sweat trickled down her face. Wearing an elaborate wig and an 1880’s costume didn’t help but mid-song the dress layer comes off and Shannon waited nightly for that underwear moment.

333/365 David

2007-01-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

He was the absolute champion of run to the finish line, yikes we gotta’ do this all-night finish up the set sessions. I’d arrive in the morning hauling set dressing gizmos and do-dads and find him speaking gibberish but surrounded by a set, fully realized. Now he is surrounded by a loving family and the run to the finish line involves Cub Scouts or Little League.

332/365 Daisy

2007-01-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

Daisy had opinions and wasn’t shy. She was a nightmare for the novice director. Lengthy tirades starting with, “We should do it this way,” caused the director’s neck to stiffen. But during the opening-night performance when a missed line caused a three-page skip in dialogue and many missed exits, Daisy was redeemed as she rolled her drunken character off the chair and crawled off stage.

331/365 Barb

2007-01-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

Barb was the biggest risk-taker in our cadre of friends. Emitting a perpetual giggle, she’d plan escapades; we’d follow. On the day of our prom, we had no problem cutting school and climbing into her car for a trip. As her car burrowed into the sandy road in the New Jersey Pines, the escapade became freeing the car without asking the help of a dreaded ‘Piney’.

330/365 Mr A.

2007-01-03T05:20:00.000-08:00

On a mischief night escapade, five teens climbed over a post and rail fence. We were ready to frighten a party-gathered group of teachers. How could we know that they’d been forewarned or that the most serious-minded of them, Mr.A, was waiting (garbage can lids in hand) to fire the first shot? His laughter at our screams was more shocking than the lid-banging noise he’d made

329/365 Hilda

2007-01-03T05:18:00.000-08:00

She should have scowled at each girl she passed in the hall, but she didn’t. Her gray cotton dress announced that she was the school matron; her ready smile told you she was a kind-hearted woman. She never complained about the condition of the girl’s bathrooms and she had reason, nor did she chase us out if we lingered too long. The world needs more Hildas.

328/365 Lincoln

2007-01-03T05:17:00.000-08:00

He’d already inherited his successful father’s hairline and was destined to inherit his success. Lincoln was the school’s math wizard. He tried basketball but spent most of his time on the bench – called to the court only when the team was leading by a bazillion points. His skills were clearly in the academic arena but he never added up that my shy smiles equaled big crush.

327/365 Miss H.

2006-12-31T04:52:00.000-08:00

She tried, oh how she tried to teach us French. We giggled through translations and gossiped as she introduced new vocabulary. When she explained an absence by telling us she was at home with Grippe, a student yelled out, “Who’s Grippe?”. We almost exploded. Yet, several years later in France, I was able to have conversations with the butcher and baker. How did she do that?

326/365 Benita

2006-12-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

In high school there were the really cool girls – cheerleaders; the geeky cool girls – theater and writing types and the shunned. Benita was in the latter group for one reason. She was bright, funny but wore all the wrong clothes. “Can you believe she’s wearing those socks?” “I think she borrowed her grandmother’s sweater.” Oh yeah, there were the really shallow girls, too. I was one.

325/265 Pauline

2006-12-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

A ready smile and a big heart best define this sister-in-law. After years of hard work and retirement planning, she and her husband built their dream home and planned to relax. But retirement unsettled her. She clearly wanted to be needed by her now grown family. So Pauline found the perfect job. She’s a volunteer dog bone baker in her son’s pet bakery. Thirty-one flavors, anyone?

324/365 Edna

2006-12-28T05:08:00.000-08:00

“Sure you can ride on the front fenders, but hang on tight, “she said as we left our campsite. We loved this Girl Scout leader. When we didn’t raise enough money for the trip to Europe, she insisted we use what we had for a first class trip to Quebec. I see us piling out of the back of her station wagon at the Chateau Frontenac.

323/365 Emily

2006-12-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

Her brother was ten when Emily was born and he gave her no slack. Living room play was rough so Emily learned to compete early. Her big brother is out on his own now and Emily is doing her turn in Junior High. I watch as she plays with all male cousins in her grandparent’s backyard – her wiffle ball homers regularly sailing out into the alley

322/365 Emily, the librarian

2006-12-27T05:49:00.000-08:00

I think she hair-pinned her tight brown curls in place or maybe she lacquered them. Whatever the reason, those curls never moved. Her lips were pinched together, too. When they did move to form a word or a slight smile, they revealed among the pearly whites one dark brown tooth. As thoughtless teens, we called her ‘ old brown tooth’. Perhaps that’s why she rarely smiled.

321/365 Emily, a niece

2006-12-27T05:46:00.000-08:00

Not wanting to go to the Bologna Fest, eight-year-old Emily was dragged to the car kicking and vocalizing her objections. Thirteen-year-old Emily placed a candy on her visiting aunt’s pillow and posed by the best tree in the yard as I photographed her in a yellow gown. At eighteen, she arrived at the beach with black and red hair, toting a mindcase packed with razor-sharp wit.

320/365 - Mrs. J.

2006-12-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

She had a hardware store in her basement but it wasn’t just a hardware store, she stocked other useful things. At Christmas, Mrs. J would add things she thought the neighborhood women would buy. My mother was very excited to find cut glass wine glasses on the shelf. As mom wrapped each one in tissue, I hear her say, “Aunt Vi will love these, they’re fancy.”

319/365 Mrs. Toth

2006-12-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

“Go to Toth’s and get a quarter pound of veal loaf,” Mom said and off we’d run to the neighborhood store a block away. Mrs. Toth raised two sons from the profits of that little store. She greeted us by name and flashed a smile - her hair hanging in clumps. In pencil, she wrote the price on the bag– an addition to the weekly tab.

*Notes - Has anyone else ever heard of veal loaf? As I remember it, it looked and tasted like pickle and pimeto loaf without pickles and pimento.

318/365 Leon

2006-12-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

For years he was the sole proprietor of the small town’s hardware store. The frame building was a rabbit’s warren of narrow halls and stairs but Leon knew where everything was. He groomed his youngest son to take over the store – fighting every suggestion of change. The son married and moved his wife in. One morning, Leon complained, “She’s OK but she keeps moving my toaster.”

317/365 Mr. Sanders

2006-12-21T05:19:00.000-08:00

Mr. Sanders stood tall behind a large wooden counter - the resting spot for an old brass cash register. His rural store stocked necessary things – nothing fancy, mind you. If Mr. Sanders wasn’t in the store, you’d probably find him in the next room – his bar. There, red and white checked oilcloth covered tables welcomed Friday night shoppers with a respite and a five cent beer.

316/365 Aunt Evelyn, circa 1948

2006-12-20T05:16:00.000-08:00

I loved her lipsticked smile and the way she listened to me. That Christmas Eve, she surprised me as I peeked through the stair railings at the tree-trimming party. My dad was showering after work. Evelyn headed to the stairs, giggling. I ran to my room and watched from the door as she grabbed his trousers and dragged them, spilling coins, downstairs to decorate the chandelier.

315/365 The Driving Test Cop

2006-12-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

He slid into the Driving School car. I sat in the driver’s seat. I was thirty-five and nervous. He was twenty-something and distracted. I began to drive the enclosed course. He flipped down the visor and pulled out a comb. I drove at fifteen MPH. He combed his hair and told me to speed up. I didn’t. He combed his hair. I got my license.

314/365 Kathy

2006-12-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

Kathy is a social worker, dealing mostly with children and families. Last evening as we played cut-throat board games, I realized why she’s drawn to her work. Every time the youngest member of the group (an overactive boy about twelve) came up with a good answer, she remembered to give him kudos. The kid became so involved in the game that he forgot to be hyper.

313/365 Aunt Butch

2006-12-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

My great-uncle George courted this farm girl-schoolmarm with tenacity akin to a rat terrier. He was wise. She became the steady glow that illuminated his life. Butch tended to things. They built a house; she tended garden, kitchen, guests and dining table laughter. When George's clear voice was garbled by a stroke, she tended to him as his interpreter and became his faithful guide dog.

312/365 Stephen - circa 1975

2006-12-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

His hair’s been combed but you can’t tell and isn’t his collar folded in? As a book slides from the stack he carries, he quickly grabs it but his sock is sliding down into his sneaker. When he bends to pull it up, all the books fall. He scoops them up and continues his walk to Dogwood Elementary. I’ll wager he became a rumpled Philosophy professor.

311/365 Virginia

2006-12-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

You reach a certain age and you begin to note the Christmas cards that don’t arrive. I am waiting for Virginia’s card. Virginia was the wife of my husband’s mentor. When her husband died suddenly and young, she met and married Mel. Friends said, “Too soon.” But the marriage has lasted for more than thirty years. The card is our only annual communication and I wait.

310/365 Jack

2006-12-14T06:01:00.000-08:00

He leans over and asks if he can straighten my coat collar. I say, “Sure,” and think, “This guy’s a stickler for detail.” Jack has landed his first onstage role, playing a Nazi admiral in “The Sound of Music”. He delivers his few lines with a slightly menacing smile - just the right detail to make the audience worry about the fate of the Von Trapps.

309/365 Carolyn

2006-12-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

You entered through the front door of Carolyn’s house, but all the activity was in the kitchen. The scent of bread baking lured you to the back of the house where chairs invited you to sit. This young mother and seventies neighbor seemed to me a June Cleaver/Hippie combo who might have been happy as a frontier woman. Invitations to dinner at Carolyn’s were always accepted.

308/365 Jerry

2006-12-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

This local actor’s booming voice startles me as I creep across the darkened stage. “I’m God. Get me a rifle,”* he shouts. Jerry has willed his Broadway theater memorabilia collection to the Lincoln Center. A lifetime of stage-door waiting and letter writing has netted Jerry an enviable collection. “I talked to Angela Lansbury at a gala last night,” he says as he walks off, stage right

* A nod to the role he's currently playing and the last prop I got for him in another show.

307/365 Jonathan

2006-12-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

I’ve just finished reading four stellar reviews for the newly-opened “Spring Awakening”. In each of them, Jonathan is noted with praise…..”Leading man in the making…serious acting chops.” Heck, we knew that several years ago as he rehearsed for “Honk” - mining every character nuance. The best thing about Jonathan is that he’s genuinely nice – the deep-down kind of nice. Do I think this will change him? Nope.

306/365 Mike

2006-12-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

I don’t remember what he did for a living, but I do remember that this 1970’s neighbor had a passion for plants. He turned his suburban backyard into a chrysanthemum plot. Healthy plastic-potted plants grew in rows, a source of joy and income. When I see a mum in new growth, I still hear his words of advice. “Pinch them back until the 4th of July.”

305/365 Julia

2006-12-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

Julia lived in one of the nicest houses in town. It helped her image as a realtor. Her graying hair was loosely pinned up in the back; her blouse neatly tucked in. She was a no-nonsense lady. In 1968, this woman did the impossible; found us a house for less than twenty-thousand dollars. It was our first and it was a very, very, very fine house.

Note: At the same time Julia was arranging our low-end purchase, she'd listed Les Paul and Mary Ford's house (a modern marvel filled with all kinds of tech wonders and in the same town). For fun, she took us on a tour!

304/365 The City Girl on Huron Circle

2006-12-08T05:20:00.000-08:00

She picked a really bad time to try out living in the woods. It was the year of the Gypsy Moth invasion. Countless cringe-worthy writhing caterpillars chewed on every bit of vegetation. As she walked to her car, a huge mass of the little buggers fell on her. She did what any good city girl would do. Went back in the house and called the police.

303/365 Floyd

2006-12-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

Floyd has plaid trousers hanging in his closet – a leftover from his years as an elementary school principal. Floyd is a cheerful man. So I was surprised to find him backstage crying before his entrance. “My daughter has breast cancer,” he sniffed. After a hug and a few Kleenex, he went onstage to sing about a girl growing up. I don’t know how he did it.

Note: His daughter is fine now. They caught it early.

302/365 The Prostitute's Daughter

2006-12-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

Her mother’s pimp-boyfriend impregnated this thirteen-year-old. Now, she was in labor. There’d been no pre-natal care. “I was afraid they’d take her from me,” the mother said. Her mother curled the naïve girl’s hair for the event. They carried a train case, packed for the stay. As labor got intense, the mother pulled a nightgown from the suitcase, hand-sewn for post delivery - a ‘dress-up’ gift.

301/365 Neville

2006-12-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

Those coke bottle glasses and his fake scowl couldn’t hide the 24 karat heart Neville’s body housed. It was especially visible on a near-Christmas day when he and his young son arrived at my door with a tree from his side business lot. “I know Phil’s in the hospital and I’ll never sell all the trees,” he mumbled as they dragged the pine into the house.

300/365 Diane

2006-12-04T05:26:00.000-08:00

Diane taught seventh and ninth grade English and Literature to countless puberty-stricken students – our two daughters included. Her students loved her wry sense of humor almost forgetting that they were actually learning something. When she taught “Great Expectations”, one daughter named a new cat, Pip. At the local Community Theater, her sense of humor quietly seeped through the skin of every comedic character she flawlessly played.

299/365 Tom

2006-12-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Because he had a very strong female side, Tom owned a Mackie gown. When he asked if I thought it would be appropriate to dress as his alter-ego for a friend’s party, I told him to follow his heart. He arrived perfectly coiffed, manicured and well-dressed enough to make a southern lady jealous. We sat chatting on a bench, his aura casting a shadow over mine.

298/365 Phil

2006-12-02T05:50:00.000-08:00

When he was young, Phil served in the Peace Corps. On his return, he vowed he’d serve again when he retired if he could. He’s just returned from two years in Africa. At the library Christmas party, he rises to speak – his gray beard unable to hide his contagious smile. He says he is happy to be here. I believe Phil is happy wherever he is.

297/365 Matt

2006-12-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

A tuxedo vest hangs loose on his thin frame. As I round the corner, I see him sitting at a church-basement table with three other guys. I think they're playing poker but they aren't. They’re stuffing envelopes and not in a church basement but in a theater lobby. Matt has two minor roles in the play. See what happens when you bring your son to rehearsal?

296/365 Evan

2006-11-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

This two-year-old was born during a run of ‘1776” – his father played John Adams. Tonight, his mother holds him and he flashes a smile as I ask, “Can he sing?” “Top of the note,” she answers. She asks Evan to sing Do Re Mi. Evan declines, but runs to the stage the minute we enter the theater. As he’s scooped up, I hear “Do a deer…”

295/365 Kylie

2006-11-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

Her liquid brown eyes roll as I ask about a prop’s whereabouts. This teen is the member of a theater family and is doing double-duty for this show. She plays multiple ensemble roles and is tracking all the props. Kylie is sure that because she’s young people don’t think she’s capable. I want to tell her it is because I know she’s capable that I ask.

294/365 John

2006-11-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

A music teacher, musician and the music director for the current show, John has put together a pit orchestra from the most talented of his friends and students. “The Sound of Music” has never sounded better. Mid-show, John steps out of his conductor role, runs off-stage right, dons a Bishop’s robe and performs the wedding of Maria and Georg Von Trapp. Such is life in Community Theater.

293/365 Connor

2006-11-29T05:59:00.000-08:00

He wears a newsboy cap everywhere – his signature. Although he’s only thirteen, Connor has been on stage often and he’s learned because he watches. During rehearsal, he responds to, “Do you think her dress is ugly?”, with a deliberate up and down stare and a look that says yes then responds with, “If I did, I wouldn’t say so.” Connor’s at the head of the class.

292/365 Paul

2006-11-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

He has an MFA in theater design but spends his days restoring houses. There’s not much money in local theater and a boy’s got to eat. By night, he designs lights and loves the color blue – a local supply house stocks four special blue gels, just for him. Standing at the snack bar during break, Paul tells horror stories of fighting for payment. He wonders why.

291/365 Michael

2006-11-25T05:22:00.000-08:00

Michael was the polar opposite of his long haired drum playing brother, Michael played by his stern father’s rules. He wanted to be the ‘good’ son. He married a sweet girl, had two point zero children, worked in the family grocery and drove for his father’s large fleet of school busses. When his stern father died, he turned his legacy, the family store, into a gym.

290/365 A Young Sailor

2006-11-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

He was alone for Thanksgiving and brought his guitar to share the day. While he serenaded us with folksy tunes, we plotted. Phil told him I’d found a ‘dehydrated’ turkey – add water and cook. A Cornish game hen was the ploy. Mid-day, we gazed at the real turkey roasting. Dinner time brought our cries of horror as we switched fowl. “We’ll eat more potatoes,” he said.

289/365 Trish

2006-11-22T04:50:00.000-08:00

Wearing a t-shirt that proclaims “Everybody goes down better with beer” - a line from Sweeney Todd – Trish is thinking about details. She’s playing one of the nuns in “The Sound of Music.” The show opens in a week and it’s time to concentrate on the little stuff. Trish will squash backstage mayhem. It’s not her job, but this PE teacher is really good at it.

288/365 Carl

2006-11-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

Jazz notes slide from his mouth and my shoulders loosen as I settle deep into my chair. Carl has a voice I love. This month, his notes are from “The Sound of Music”. Not quite jazz, but I still love the sound. Costume parade finds him in trousers suited for a flood. “They can never find clothes to fit me,” he says. Carl sings the blues.

287/365 Rob

2006-11-20T05:36:00.000-08:00

He arrives for rehearsal with a Tyrolean hat, a red scarf and a walking stick – to establish character. Rob’s a theater veteran and has an eye for detail. After a long wait in the darkened theater, he dons his hat and takes the stage. From his first line to the rakish sway of one leg during a dance, he offers a scene perfectly wrapped – a gift.

286/365 Natalie

2006-11-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

Daughter of the local leading man, Natalie has grown up at the theater - embraced by its large family. At six, she appeared on stage for the first time and stole the show with her clear-voiced solo. Last year she played a saucy Annie orphan. Yesterday, I watched as she helped a younger member of the "Sound of Music" cast, fussing with her costume. Natalie’s a veteran.

285/365 Jim

2006-11-18T05:57:00.000-08:00

Jim opened a small ice-cream and sandwich shop. He themed it with cows and called it Udder Choice. He hoped he’d get the ball-game victors and the locals looking for an overstuffed sandwich at a fair price. Hungry cops arrived. Construction workers arrived. Senior Citizens arrived and brought friends. Jim built a bigger barn-shaped shop - themed it with cows. The parking lot is always full.

284/365 Joe

2006-11-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

He was the pharmacist in a national chain pharmacy but it was always Joe’s place. His laughter greeted everyone who walked through the door; his kind acts were hidden. All day he explained to aging, confused customers how to take new medicines. At day’s end, he put on his trenchcoat and delivered to those too frail to make the trip – a service the chain didn’t offer.

283/365 George

2006-11-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

When my brother was born, my father told me, “All newborns look like Eisenhower.” Dad was wrong. George was clearly the best small human I’d ever seen. I watched as he sprouted red curls, learned to walk-run and chanted dinosaur names. He beat me soundly at Battleship, gathered reams of paper stats for APBA and revealed to the world that he was gentle and pin-spot bright.

Happy 57th, RLB. You still make me smile more than anyone I know.

282/365 Dodrey

2006-11-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

My young Uncle was being trained to dodge enemy fire when he met Dodrey, his future wife. She was a sweet southern girl, filled with enthusiasm. While he was fighting in the European theater, she spent a winter with the Yankee branch of the family. I see my parents watching as Dodrey and I roll in the deep snow; vying for the loudest laughter, wettest snowsuit.

281/365 Andy

2006-11-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

When he was in Junior High, he rode his bike to the theater to lend a hand in all things technical. No one believed he could know what he knew. “Too young,” they said. His youthful enthusiasm and rapid-fire speech caused a few to flinch. Away for a few years, he returned last evening toting his SLR for a photo shoot. Silent voices shouted, “Welcome back.”

280/365 The Seminary Boys

2006-11-13T05:10:00.000-08:00

It is 1961 and the local Episcopal seminary needs one female actor. I audition and am cast as a deaf girl who delivers one long plaintive monologue, goes off-stage and is hit by a truck – the perfect role. The Seminary boys worry that the barmaids from their local hangout will attend the play and cause a stir. They do – wearing outrageous hats on their worldly-wise heads.

279/365 Judy

2006-11-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

In high school, she was never asked to a prom, dinner or a movie. The boys thought she was too tall. After college, she moved with her new husband to South America, his home. When she showed up for the 35th reunion, a striking beauty, former adolescent boys gawked wistfully. I think I heard someone say, “Hey Judy ya’ wanna go to the prom this year?”

278/365 Betti

2006-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Betti walks into the meeting looking disheveled and carrying a jumble of papers that must have come straight from the trash. She’s here to present the varnished truth and she’s no good at it. With uneven brushstrokes she tells us the latest financial news of this theater. Through the varnish, we see the truth. It is, as always, time to keep the wolf from the door.

277/365 Morgan

2006-11-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

We meet and Morgan announces, “I’ve got a booger in my hair. It’s not mine. It’s my brother’s.” Not quite four, she already knows how to turn a phrase and heads. She’s playing Gretyl in ‘The Sound of Music’ and arrives for rehearsal wearing either pink glitter boots or gold glitter clogs. Both cause a noisy clatter as she races away from her brother between scenes.

276/365 Paul

2006-11-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

He is tall and ‘one stripe on your pajamas’ thin. Behind his glasses there is an unmistakable twinkle. Paul, a lighting designer, has arrived for a production meeting. The director is out-of-town so we have a conference call meeting. We huddle in the office, fielding the director’s questions. Paul and I aren’t called on. He bides his time by pushing the Easy button on the desk.

275/365 Dot

2006-11-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

She’d been the keeper of order in a medical practice for years and years. I thought she was ancient. When I met her thirteen-year-old daughter, I was flabbergasted. She noticed my dropped jaw and explained, “One Christmas morning when our first three children were teens, carefully opening their gifts, my husband looked at me and said, 'this stinks'. So we had another to keep the joy.”

274/365 Another Karen

2006-11-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Home from college, Karen landed two summer jobs. Wearing a black uniform with white apron, she bussed from the burbs to downtown Philly to serve U of P professors. After lunch, she’d walk to our dorm to nap before changing into her sandwich-shop clothes; white uniform with black apron. Daily, we returned to our room to find Karen bed-sprawled: a summer study in black and white.

273/365 Jeanne

2006-11-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

When her husband was transferred north, Jeanne insisted on a heated driveway to dissolve the nasty Yankee weather. She set to decorating her house in southern style with good taste and plenty of red – think red pots and pans. At Christmas, she decked her halls with hundreds of red bows, threw a party and gave me a gift I still cherish – her recipe for Beef Wellington.

272/365 Karen

2006-11-05T06:44:00.000-08:00

“It’s taken fifteen years for my husband to cast me,” Karen says. She’s playing Elizabeth Proctor in “The Crucible”; her husband, Jody, is directing. I watch her develop this complex character. At dress-rehearsal, a jailed Elizabeth tells her about-to-be -hanged husband, “Whatever you will do, it is a good man does it.” Tears flow down my face and won’t stop. What took you so long Jody?

271/365 John

2006-11-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

His older brother was the town’s beloved family doctor but John didn’t notice his brother’s shadow. He developed a bone-cutting wit as he worked as a pressman for the local weekly. One day, the owner’s full-of-himself son walked into the office, wearing full-dress Marine garb and exhaling rarified Marine air from his over-inflated chest. John shouted to the backroom, “Anyone expecting a telegram? The boy’s here!”

270/365 Ida

2006-11-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

She stands at the end of the supermarket checkout, readying her tools. While she fills the plastic bag holders, I notice her nails, recently painted pink. Her hair is ‘done’ – bouffant on the top, pinned up and sprayed hard. I suspect it’s a hair style she chose in the fifties and kept. Ida works to make ends meet but packs bags the way she’d want them.

269/365 Mary Jo

2006-11-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

I see her long blond hair as she sets up her craft stand. Mary Jo is being raised happy by grandparents in a beach town where, in winter, traffic lights blink yellow.

I hear her trembling voice as she tells me that her grandfather has died. “I’ve feared this day my whole life,” she says.

I hold a letter. It says: No Forwarding Address.

I wonder.

268/365 Jack

2006-11-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

When he and Joanne married, he moved into her house and helped to raise her four sons. They cared for his aging parents and raised a granddaughter whose parents couldn’t. But the house was always hers. When she died, he saw her everywhere in her house. After a couple of years, he built a porch. “So it will be my house,” he said. It never was.

267/365 Third Ward Worker

2006-10-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

She called yesterday making sure I’d be voting.. Since I’m a registered Independent voter in a very Republican town, I was surprised to get this call. When I last voted, she raised her eyebrows as she found my name in her book. “You’re an Independent,” she said, as though it was a disease. Maybe she thinks that I’m cured and am now a normal, healthy Republican.