One summer morning, my mother tells me we'd be visiting a friend for lunch. She'd made some new friends since the divorce, and some of...

One day, Jake reveals that he has a friend named Ally who lives at the end of 80th Street who has horses and boards a pony. The pony is...

Cromwell and Jane stopped by our house almost every day. They were always hearty eaters but as time went by, they really began to pack...

One day six years ago, Perry was on our back deck in Arlington, Virginia, surveying our domain. He wasn’t out there doing anything in...

When Earl and Dolly Huntington sell their house, which sits behind Junior’s property, he is concerned about the Hispanic family that...

Junior has a range of pets that come and go over the years, including a raccoon, a skunk and a crow. The racoon develops a taste for beer...

My grandfather, D.G. Pfoutz, is the second man standing from the right in this photo. Someone has helpfully pointed him out with an...

Our immediate neighbors to the left are Junior, his wife Jeannie and their five children. There are usually at least two dead cars on...

Guy's half-sister Emily and her brother John. Among other pieces of her jewelry, Grandmother gives me a black and white enameled gold...

stillwatersmemoir.com Here is the goofiest picture of my father I ever found. He's in his Navy swabbies, although I'm stumped as to why...

When I’m young and go to visit Grandmother, I sometimes stay a few nights. Grandmother loves Lawrence Welk and when I’m staying over a...

It’s odd that Ruth demands we call her by the formal title of ‘Grandmother.’ It seems like a grab at elevating her position. After all,...

Shirley and Guy are married in 1943. They make a handsome couple, he with his brown hair, blue eyes, and Navy uniform, Shirley, with dark...

On Christmas Eve, the men at the Cabin John Volunteer Fire Department get juiced up and drive one of the fire engines around the...

My parents were friends with the Connors for many years. Mom worked with Faye at the University. Faye was a professor and Willis worked...

My mother favors a balsam fir tree. We go to Bethesda or Friendship Heights to get one. It takes time to pick the right one out, time...

Five days before Christmas, my mother phoned me and asked me to bring mashed potatoes for the Christmas table. I agreed, potatoes being...

Like many ladies of her time, my grandmother Ruth is enamored of the story of Little Lord Fauntleroy. While I doubt she ever read the...

My father’s mother is one of 12 children in the Schaal family of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Like a lot of families in this area, they...

Like many people, Shirley drives more slowly the older she gets. But she took umbrage with those around her who wanted to go faster. “I’m...