George Shuman
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dear Readers, Dear Friends, This week’s column will be a short one. (I know, some of you are breathing a sigh of relief with that news.) Sometimes I try to make you laugh in this space; sometimes I just want to make us all think. Today I would like us to think. I would also like us to feel. Our nation has just finished another very contentious poli...
Spooky!
Dear Readers, You may have seen this column before. I have used it for several years on Halloween week. It’s my most requested ‘reprint.’ I hope you enjoy it. Spooky! By G. E. Shuman It is a distant memory, cold and old, dusted off now as a long-neglected, rediscovered book might be. It matters, somehow, that this nearly-forgotten evening happened...
We are all Collectors
By G. E. Shuman I am not much of a ‘collector’ of things. I do have a small front room in our home that displays several items from my family’s past. My grandfather’s Victrola is there, along with a few other antiques, books, and photos from many years ago. Other than that, I think of myself as a minimalist and look at the accumulation of ‘things’...
Kitchen Trash
By G. E. Shuman Around my house I’m the one who takes out the garbage. It’s just always been that way. At one time I tried to get that to be one of my kids’ jobs, but somehow it never got done on time or when it got full or something else happened that made me give up on the kids’ chore idea. Ever since, I have just done it when it needs to be done...
The Coming of Fall
By G. E. Shuman Okay, so, I admit it. THIS really is my favorite time of year. I enjoy spring, but don’t like spring cleaning; I like summer, but don’t enjoy mowing, raking, or bugs; and I like the first snowfall of winter, for about the first five minutes of that first snowfall. UGH! Fall, to me, is perfect. The sound of electricity pouring throug...
The Sign at the End of our Street
(A Slightly Seussical Saying, for Stop Sign Obeying) By G. E. Shuman We have a red sign, at the end of our street. It says the word STOP, in white letters so neat. I think it’s a law, that when seeing that sign, A driver must do what that sign has in mind. To slow, and to look, when approaching a ‘T’ In the road is just part of what driving should...
A Child of the ‘60s
By G. E. Shuman Okay, so, I am a child of the ‘60s. Well, in truth, it’s even worse than that. I was actually born in the 1950s but only came to understand that I was alive in the ‘60s, if you know what I mean. The fact is, I was really there, right dab in the middle of the 1960s. I was in high school until 1972 and saw all kinds of tremendously ne...
Potato Salad
By G. E. Shuman In this column, I would like to discuss the very serious topic of potato salad. It may not seem like much of an issue to you or me, but it’s a big deal to a potato. After all, many lowly spuds, each year, give their very lives for the privilege of being included in this summertime picnic/barbecue/cookout/pig roast/ favorite. Truly,...
Short and Simple Summer Stories
By G. E. Shuman I’d like to relate three short summertime stories that I know I have shared in the past, but it was long ago, and you wouldn’t have heard of them. As I get a bit older, I realize that my stories also age a bit, but are, hopefully, still relevant. Summer is my favorite season, and these short tales are ones I have heard along the way...
The Picnic Basket
By G. E. Shuman My wife’s birthday was/is this week. I’m not going to tell you how old, or how young she is, as I value my life far too much to do that. Anyway, let it also be known that I did marry an older woman. Truthfully, she really is older than me… three weeks older, to be exact. Three weeks is a significant amount of time, especially the th...
