Strange, how there’s no money in bending spoons, levitating, walking through walls, eating fire. Stranger still, the mind’s tireless insistence on returning to the same vault of memory: a woven hammock bleached by the sun, beach glass, the texture of a Van Gogh, metallic oysters, cold beer, fried shrimp, French vanilla ice cream. Strangest ofContinue reading “Withlacoochee River, 1986”
Tag Archives: family
Beep Beep!
The state trooper walked so slowly up to my driver’s side window, it had to have been deliberate. Either that, or he was trying to mimic what he’d seen in all those Looney Tunes cartoons he’d watched as a boy. The only sounds were those of July cicadas, one other passing car, and the trooper’sContinue reading “Beep Beep!”
Nine Machetes and an Earring
When I was a boy, one of the things I loved most was a collection of 45-records, passed on to my Grandma Ruth from her dad’s jukebox and pinball machine business Keystone Amusement based in Silverton, a small Oregon town in the Willamette valley an hour’s drive south of Portland. In the 1950’s and 60’s,Continue reading “Nine Machetes and an Earring”
Mother’s Day
Fudge
Originally posted on C.M. Rivers:
I came across the recipe in your old index card box, alphabetically misplaced between Fruitcake and Fritter Batter. “I miss you”, I said aloud as I measured out the sugar, butter, salt and evaporated milk. The cat looked at me expectantly, thinking – as he always does – that…
Knick-Knacks
I remember my mom yelling at my dad through the phone, and wondering when I might get to meet him. I remember meeting him, the sound of his laugh, the slope of his shoulder, how he rubbed his feet together at the end of the day, how he took the list my mom had madeContinue reading “Knick-Knacks”
Impaled Digits
Growing up, I had the privilege of enduring several ingrown toenail surgeries, which culminated in having a third of the nail removed on each of my big toes. Of course, by that time I was reading a magazine and whistling to myself while blood spurted across the room like a Monty Python skit. Yet IContinue reading “Impaled Digits”
C.M. Rivers 