Category: Memoir (fiction/non-fiction)

Memoir (fiction/non-fiction)2 Comments

Applesauce

susanbassmarcus1

For the ULCC Writers Group She slept in their old wedding bed, now that her parents preferred twin beds. Her bedroom’s dim light played with a floral wallpaper pattern on the wall facing her bed; she imagined little devil heads shaking and winking at her. Shades darkening her room skimmed the bottom of windows that faced the backyard. A large black and yellow poster was attached to her bedroom door—“Keep Out! Quarantine!” it   warned.   Mostly she slept, waking occasionally to the feel of a cold washcloth or an icepack on her forehead. Her mother urged her to lie quietly, … Continue reading Applesauce

Memoir, Musings1 Comment

Salad and the Hotpoint Kitchen

susanbassmarcus1

In 1952, after the fifth attempted burglary of our house on 50th Street in Chicago, my parents decided to buy a lot on the North Shore and build a new home. Before that work could begin, they organized lawsuits with other prospective lot buyers to break a restrictive covenant governing all the empty lots on a recently divided family estate. Until the covenant became illegal, the owner would not sell real property to Blacks, Jews, or Asians. Almost as a celebration of their victory over prejudice, they built a ranch house on a wooded, half-acre lot on a private lane … Continue reading Salad and the Hotpoint Kitchen

A Writer's Progress/Process, Memoir1 Comment

Nan

susanbassmarcus1

Nan was what some call “a good soul.” Conversations with Nan were like an interview with Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised on Mars by Martians who came to Earth and changed the course of humanity: Nan grokked. She always listened intently to her partner in conversation and seemed to understand immediately and intuitively the other person’s point of view. The term “grok” and the character Smith come from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 work Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel I read in that decade and never forgot. In the 1980’s, Nan and I became friends when we both … Continue reading Nan