I grew up in a society that was expressly designed to circumscribe who I was and what I was allowed to achieve. But however much they may have wished to do so, my antagonists simply didn’t have the power to keep me in the place they had assigned to me! Continue reading
Brian Edwards stood in the entrance of his cubicle and looked around the office for the last time. It was a few minutes before 8:00 am on a Tuesday morning, and the office routine was just getting started. Over at the coffee maker, Don, Shelley, and Fred were filling their… Continue reading
In 1913 Ida Schnall (1888–1973) organized a team for women who loved baseball. For most of them the team wasn’t about mounting a crusade for gender equality in sports—they just wanted to play ball. But to do so they had to overcome stiff opposition. The New York Times of Tuesday,… Continue reading
Being an astronaut was Mason Anderson’s childhood dream. And now here he was, floating before a porthole in his space capsule, looking over the moon’s horizon at the blue, blue earth beyond. It had been seven days since he had been hurled into orbit atop SpaceX’s most powerful booster rocket…. Continue reading
Buddy didn’t want to have his hair cut; it was just that simple. But the question was, how to prevent it. He’d been excited when his dad told him they were going for a drive. So he ran and jumped eagerly into the car, his excitement growing as his dad… Continue reading
When I walked into our band room that day in 1964, I had no expectation of anything earth shaking taking place. As far as I knew, it would be just another practice session for our high school concert band. But for me, and I believe for the other band members… Continue reading
I am a collector of digitized photographs. Each of the thousands I have on my computer tells a story. That’s the case with the one above. It was taken on a Los Angeles street in 1942 by Russell Lee of the Office of War Information, and it tells me something… Continue reading
Last night I came upon a poem I had never heard before. I heard it in, of all places, an episode of the old “Perry Mason” show (“The Case of the Envious Editor”, first shown in 1961). One of the characters recited the poem, and I found it striking enough… Continue reading
Here in my home office, I have a window that looks out on my side yard. There are several trees that are real close, and I get to watch the squirrels running up and down all day. Well, this morning I witnessed a scene I’ve never seen before. A small… Continue reading