Sept. 20, 2013 My grandmother’s ancestry is a mystery.  That’s because she was adopted as an infant.  The story goes like this. My great...

Sept. 26,2013 In my last blog post, The strange tale of my Grandmother’s origins, I mentioned my mother’s Great Aunt, Nellie Sue Norwood,...

Oct. 9, 2013 My maternal grandfather, James Howard Zant, was born on a ranch near Aspermont, the seat of Stonewall County, Texas,...

Oct. 25, 2013 I am a Southerner.  A bona fide one.   My direct lineal ancestor, Lemuel Lamb Hardy, was born sometime between 1695 and...

Oct. 31, 2013 My father had a ginormous number of cousins – his father had come from a family of thirteen and his mother from a family of...

Nov. 7, 2013 I am introspective, undoubtedly to a fault.  It’s hard not to be where there are so very many interesting things to think...

Nov. 25, 2013 When I was a child, we roamed the neighborhood in packs comprised of kids ranging in age from ten to two.  “Whatever you...

Dec. 6, 2013 Little girls these days appear to go through a Princess phase.  This confounds me.  Disney’s Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty...

Dec. 14, 2013 I’m a knitter.  I come by it honestly.  My mother was an Über knitter.  She taught scores of people to knit, myself...

Dec. 19, 2013 My family had a rule: the time between dogs should be as short as humanly possible.  No sooner had Ughy, our beloved...

Jan. 2, 2014 I am the child of celebrities, going back to the fifties, when my father played Captain Star on a local children’s...

Jan. 9, 2014 I have a hallux abducto valgus deformity – in laymen’s terms, a bunion, and, no, it’s not because I wore pointy-toed shoes...

Jan. 16, 2014 I have three looks: gussied up, not gussied up and OMG.  My friend Catharine says that I should include ‘Gone to the dogs’...

Jan. 24, 2014 When my son Will was a toddler, he was kidnapped.  Or he ran away. In any case, one sunny summer afternoon my ex and I...

Jan. 31, 2014 In the dead of the winter of ‘86, when my twins were one and Brina four and a half, my ex and I decided that what we really...

Feb. 7, 2014 I am telephobic. I have been as long as I can remember. I didn’t know it was an actual disorder until I Googled it, but...

Feb. 14, 2014 The day I helped move my then 78 year old mother and 82 year old father into The Cedars of Chapel Hill (or, as my father...

Feb. 21, 2014 There are so many things I would have done, but … you know … clouds got in the way.      I would have finished my PhD.  I...

Feb. 28, 2014 When I was in my late twenties,  I received a call from a man with an unfamiliar voice. “Hi.  How’re you doing?” “Fine,” I...

Mar. 7, 2014 My father courted my mother with puppies.  The first was a mixed breed called Pot, who was summarily run over. The second...