Family

Celebrating Life’s Milestones

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(A Beach Reporter column from May 29, 1992.)

May and June always seem to me to mark the passage of time even more than the beginning of the new year in January. We start a new calendar in January, but in late spring we mark many of life’s milestones. Graduations, weddings, ceremonies marking the completion of work well-done, luncheons honoring teachers – all these events traditionally mark the season of late spring.

It is during these ceremonies that we take notice of our lives. Life can be so monotonous sometimes, so we need celebrations to renew our souls and awaken our emotions. We need to mark the passage of time with parties. Graduates reflect on the completion of their education and are quietly proud of their accomplishment. Newly married couples start out on a journey full of promise. She will always be as beautiful as she is on this wedding day. He will always look at her with adoration. Continue reading →

In Springtime, A Woman’s Fancy Turns to… Cleaning

Kathy Stevenson1 Comment

(This essay appeared in The Beach Reporter on 4/16/92)

I can tell spring is coming. Not by the usual signs. Plump robins gathering string for nests, and rows of daffodils standing at attention are not the things that herald spring’s arrival to me.

Rather, it’s a feeling that comes over me that I believe is a direct link to past generations of women. I hesitate to name it, in an era when women are executives with their own cleaning help and personal shoppers. But, for lack of a better, more apt description, I will call this feeling “domesticity.”

All I know is that every spring, I get this strong desire to start Big Projects around the house. Like the robin about to feather her nest with finery collected from the yard, I cast a keen eye upon my home and find it sorely lacking in so many areas. On the Martha Stewart scale of homes, mine would rate, at best, a C+. Continue reading →

TV-Free: One Week Was All We Could Stand

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(First published in The Beach Reporter on 5/21/92.)

The notice they sent home seemed benign enough. My children’s school was going to go “TV-free” for one week, and children and parents were invited to sign up. No pressure, though. If you didn’t do it, they would probably just post your family’s name in big scarlet letters on the playground fence, or assign your kid to be lunch monitor for the next year.

So, naturally, we signed up.

The first part of TV-free week was a questionnaire to be filed out by the student. (With the parent making sure the questions were answered “correctly.”)

The first questions were simple enough. How much TV do you watch each day? Do you do other things (like homework) while watching TV? Then the two clinchers: Would you rather spend time with your family or watch TV? And, would you rather give up TV for a week or your best friend? (What if your TV is your best friend, I ask you.) Continue reading →

Bowling – Still A Great American Tradition

Kathy StevensonLeave a comment

(An essay from my Beach Reporter column 4/23/92.)

If you want to experience life the way it was before Evian water and no-smoking sections, try a visit to your local bowling alley. In a world where trends appear and disappear in a nanosecond, and technology changes at warp speed, bowling alleys remain locked in time.

I probably wouldn’t be hanging around bowling alleys if it weren’t for my children. I do a lot of things I wouldn’t normally do because of them. That is the wonderful thing and the terrible thing about being a parent.

My little boy joined a bowling league last September with his best friend Jack, and they bowl every Thursday afternoon. The league is called Bumper Kids, and they put these inflatable blue bumpers in the alleys, so the ball stays more or less in the lane. It’s a very good thing they put bumpers there because when a six year-old throws a bowling ball you never know where it’s going to end up. Continue reading →