St. Louis was first for many things that promoted a richness of experience in my early years, helping to form my worldview. These are:...

One of the common calls on the playground, in somebody's yard, basement, or the neighborhood lot where we played baseball (and mind you,...

Thinking back on my first years on Earth gives me reason for pause: my first three years of life were spent in a place steeped with...

Gretchen Margaret Dupander, my paternal grandmother, was born in 1893. She was the only living grandparent I had growing up and while I...

The S. family's tale did not end happily, but wherever Kathy is now, I hope that she is happy and well. Joyce was three years older than...

Part I: I was born in St. Louis, Missouri at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 1946. St. Louis was my home until I moved to Dallas, Texas at...

At my age, another birthday doesn't feel as if it should merit celebration. I wake up, stare at myself in the mirror, and in spite of the...

Although it was an Impala advertised on television at the end of The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, our baby-blue and white two-tone,1957...

Depression Syndromes: The Great Depression indubitably imprinted permanent dysphoria on the children who grew up during those years,...

My most cherished, and one of my earliest memories, is of Christmas 1951. I was five and it was the most magical Christmas ever. As...

Like any child, I was enamored with toys and a few I remember with great fondness. One was my portable record player. I don't recall...

Holiday Inn: Holiday Hill was a forerunner of Six Flags. About five miles from my family's first house in the suburban area of Bel-Ridge,...

Having a swimming pool in one's back yard was unusual in St. Louis. The winters were long and the summer season hot and short. Most folks...

Swimming in St. Louis and Sunny Florida: Summer in St. Louis could be hot and humid and finding ways to cool off were not always easy. My...

Mary Margaret Pointer - b. September 15, 1924; d. February 13, 1981 Dad's Parachute: Although Mom's proclivity for eccentricity sometimes...

My mother quit school shortly after she entered the eighth grade, just two years after her fifth grade teacher punished her in front of...

Sometimes, Mom was just downright creepy. When she and Dad went to Europe in the early 70s, they stopped in merry old England first. Of...

My two children and I lived in New York with my mother and father in the late 1970s until I remarried in 1981. one day after work, I...

4311 Linton Avenue, built in 1908. This is the flat in the Fairground Neighborhood in North St. Louis where my father grew up. He lived...

Mom shared many of her own memories and stories with me. Here are a few: Dancing: Mom met Dad while he was on military leave in St. Louis...