Inquiries.

Homologated.

Autodidactic.

Tintinnabulation.

What do these words have in common?

Nothing whatever that I know of. Except that they are English words and mean something to me.

The first is simple enough, and represents victory over the longtime Scrabble champion of our household. Daughter Mary and I have been Scrabble antagonists virtually since she could say the alphabet. And about junior high (an early term for middle school), she has won nearly every game we’ve ever played. Read More»

With little editing, this is from Alice traveling South with her dad and sister Mary, in August, 1971. She was our middle daughter, then 11. We could spot her letters a mile away – a round open script, usually on neon notepaper.

Hi, Y’all!
Really, it’s silly to write so soon. But you told me to! A rain has been following us, and I guess it makes Dad a little nervous. Grandma’s car has been acting good, and we haven’t had to stop for it. Read More»

Found a goldmine of letters the girls wrote back and forth to their parents while Dave was helping start the production of fiberglass insulation in Fairburn. I was at home in New Jersey, readying the house for sale, while they spent the summer swimming or wishing they could. It’s interesting to see their perception of their new home in Georgia.

Aug. 3, 1971, from Mary, 13, to me:
How’s everything up north? Things are fine down here, though slightly boring. The house really looks great. Hope it gets finished on time. Read More»

When I was about 8, we moved from city to country because life in the city was becoming crowded and unpleasant. Every morning we had to sweep the porch clear of soot from the coal-powered railroad two blocks away, and some days my mom couldn’t hang sheets or blankets out to air.

Both of my parents had country childhoods, and they wanted me and my younger brother to have the same memories, to cook their home-grown fruits and veggies, and to let us kids ride bikes on the little-trafficked asphalt roads. Read More»

Someone stopped me recently on the cart path, confirmed that I was who she thought I was, and told me she enjoyed my work.

Then, hesitantly, she asked me about the monument in the city green area off Willowbend Road. She had noticed that the name on it was also Satterthwaite.

When I told her it was a memorial to our daughter Alice, she apologized for having brought up what she supposed was a painful subject.

It is not, of course, and I told her so. I’m always grateful for an opportunity to share memories of the sweet child who blessed our lives for 17 short years, so long ago. Read More»

A glimpse inside close friends’ marriage stirs in me a desire to tell the world about it, and they agreed, under the condition of anonymity. Maybe their story will mean something to another couple struggling with life, then again, maybe not. See what you think.

He was the first guy she met in college that she didn’t try to impress. For one thing, he was all but engaged and, for another, she was painfully aware that her plain features were not enhanced by chlorine-soaked hair and an old sweatshirt, so why waste the effort? Read More»

Readers, you surprised me by telling me you liked reading the letters Dave wrote when he was here in Georgia on a new plant-startup. Only the US Postal Service connected him with me and the girls, waiting in New Jersey for the completion of our new home in Peachtree City. He writes:

7-23-71
Dear family,
Just getting ready for bed when I realized that I had not written to you all.

I’m so tired! We are working 12-hour shifts 8 to 8. So far I am on the daylight shift. We are working the extra 4 hours really to help keep the hourly Q.C. people out of trouble…. Read More»

For too long I’ve used this space to complain about lost articles. (clothing, cell phones, and the like; not newspaper articles.)

So when a resident of Peachtree City’s Fisher’s Luck neighborhood called and said she had our Bible, we celebrated that for once the lost had become found.
I asked her if it was mine or my husband’s, and she said she couldn’t tell. I thought that was curious because Dave and I both have the same Good News editions, and I knew they were signed by each other. Read More»

Somehow we managed to skip winter this year. It’s not just that we’ve had such a mild season; it’s more a matter of color and light.

From autumnal gold and brown, we leapt to spring flowers at an all-time early date: our daffodils opened their first bobbing heads about Jan. 15. They’ve always bloomed before the end of January, but I think this was an “earliest.” Read More»

If you’ve read this column over the past few years, you might have noted that I vent my frustration with episodes of having to replace every household appliance in the nearly 30 years since we built this house.

It’s easy to forget that actuarials estimate the replacement of household goods to occur roughly every eight or ten years. By that standard, we should be grateful we haven’t had to replace them more often. Read More»