Who Will Save My Sole?
Walking into Ralph’s Shoe Repair on North State Street took me all the way back through the years to my five-year-old self…
Methodist Minister and His Wife Adopt Children of All Races
(Life Magazine – November 12, 1951) Ten years ago, like many childless couples, Carl and Helen Doss began their family by adopting…
Here We Go Again
Three and one-half short weeks ago, I was benching my weight and doing 15 pull-ups at a go. Granted, I don’t weigh…
The Head Ride IV
Regular readers of my fetching prose will remember three earlier installments of this piece that dealt with my passion for motorcycle touring,…
Favorite Things: Greta, Ariana, Coltrane & The Von Trapps
Greta Thunberg’s four-minute jeremiad at the United Nations this past Monday was delivered not standing behind a pulpit or kneeling on rocky…
Powerless: Ain’t Got No ‘Lectricity
When I heard that PG&E was going to turn off power in my part of the world my first response was denial.…
Haight Before the Lovers Moved In
I lived in the Haight because it was a cheap, lower middle-class neighborhood, and a step above the Tenderloin. In 1963 it…
Livernash
A young attorney, who had hung his shingle in Mendocino's county seat, proved to be the first witness in the history of…
Tex & Garlic’s
I traded some property many years ago and bought an older country home in Healdsburg just out of town. I rented this…
Goodbye Stranger: A Wildcard in Three Acts
Act One: When I was a freshman in high school Julie Pardini would drive Mr. Biggins and me 26.2 miles every morning…
Head of State
The body politic has human parts: head, limbs, heart. That body has an abundance of these in the case of the royal…
An Introvert Walks into a Bar
Once a week I treat myself to breakfast at a diner. It used to be breakfast with my wife, but she died,…