(From my diary. Advice to a recently divorced friend.)
Every generation has its own etiquette. The problem was that when I got divorced, I’d been married for over twenty years, and had no idea what that etiquette was. The last time I’d dated was in 1961.At that time, the big question that raged through the school was whether or not it was all right to kiss on a first date. By the time I was on my own again, the question was whether it was all right to have sex on a first date. I didn’t really believe that until I overheard one of my female students saying,
Denouement in Reykjavik
We had a disagreement during supper. Joseph had misjudged me. He said if I
The Rockers from Riga, Episode 6
New Year
New Years in Kiev, episode 5
The Black House, Lviv, episode4
Glass in Uzgorod, Ukraine, episode 3
Ruins of Nevytsky Castle
The hills were gently rolling. There were patches of snow in the woods. In the open, the snow had melted and the grass was the yellow of old ivory. Just after it started to become light we crossed a stream and the sound of the train changed, becoming momentarily deeper. While we
The Oranges of Peristroika, episode 2
Moscow station. Moscow station, I kept thinking It wasn
The Ten Cent Christmas
When my aunt was a recently married bride (she was eighteen), she and her husband were very poor. They lived in a shanty. Jack was an ordinary airman in the airforce and the pay was not intended to support both him and a wife. However, my aunt was beautiful and he was dashing in his uniform and they, like many young couples, were full of hope. Love, they believed, could overcome all problems.
Their first Christmas all they had between them was ten cents. Mind you ten cents still meant something. You could buy something with ten cents. It was two third of a
Christmas Day in Gimli
(from my diary)
There were other magical days. Easter. Islindingadagurinn. The day school got out. Thanksgiving. Birthdays. But Christmas always had its own magic. Part of that were the songs. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Christmas Bells. Good King Wenceslas. Everyone has his or her own favorites. There aren
Snowing in Moscow, episode 1
It was snowing in Moscow when I arrived. Big flakes, as big as my thumbnail. As we stood in the lamplight at Shermatyvo, waiting for our car, the flakes spiraled like endless
