Category: Childhood Memories

Ruth and I traveled to the upper peninsula the first week of August.  All the kids were there so we joined them.  Sutton and Elizabeth were making one last stop in the mitten before heading west.  David and his family joined them to go camping. Mike and Kate flew in from California and camped a …

My discussion with my mom about my artwork was short lived.  I had been ill  and home from school a couple of years prior.  While I was home she tossed a couple dozen “your body is changing” books on my bed and told me to read them. “If you have any questions, just ask.” I …

The day after the fire Mom and Dad had to find us a place to live.     Grandpa Barner had an open flat above his Detroit home on Troester, so we moved in there.  It was a simple apartment.  It had a couple of small bedrooms, a  kitchen, living room and a bath.  We …

Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was a pioneering American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and patent clerk. Nursing education was not very formalized at that time and she did not attend nursing school, so she provided …

  In no particular order of importance. I never saw Poppy get mad or raise his voice. I expect that he did – don’t we all – but I never witnessed it. His sons-in-law respected him.  Tony, Harry, Don and Joe were not afraid to tease him, and they loved him like a father. He …

Margaret and Harrison Continued Our  1958 Christmas rescue of the house with “no heat” was resolved very quickly.   Preparing for the job took longer than the job itself. There was a family Christmas party being held at the home of one of Poppy’s customers. It was much like the one we left, only more …

Their friends called them Margaret and Harrison. Margaret was born Margaret Louise Walker.  Harrison was really Carter Harrison.   Kate, Ruth, Eugenia, Harry and Mildred called them mom and dad.  To my sisters, cousins, and me they were Grandma and Grandpa Barner (AKA Poppy). They lived in Kentucky where my mom and Aunt Ruth were …

Ruth and I went to a concert last Saturday.  We saw David Foster and he was spectacular. If you’re not sure who he is, and I wasn’t, think Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Andrea  Bocelli, Michael Buble’, Josh Groban, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Bolton, Kenny Rogers, …

I first heard of Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee when I was about twelve.   My grandparents had visited a local hotel on a couple of occasions and loved it.   The hotel was known for its mineral baths and their medicinal powers. At least one year  my Uncle Harry and Aunt Ruth and my cousins, …

Michigan is getting hammered by snow today and the weather reports reminded me of the snowball throwing in my youth.  When you’re kid, and there’s snow, you’re making snowballs.  You have to. The kids in the neighborhood had snowball fights all of the time.  We made snow forts in our backyards and went to “war”.  …