So Angry, I Cried Tears of Relief

by Jan on August 10, 2021

I looked in Victoria’s Secret window and started to cry. Images of large stunning women that in my day would have been judged unacceptable and fat. That word, ‘fat,’ was a dreaded word that influenced and pre-programmed many perceptions about myself. I came from the world tainted by Twiggy, the 1960’s bone-thin fashion model who […]

Losing Friends

May 3, 2023

They come, and they go in and out of the seasons of our days. And then there are those who stay no matter what. 707 girls you know who you are. I’ve been fortunate to have many acquaintances and friends throughout my life’s journey. They have witnessed me stupid, brilliant, and dull and funny, but […]

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THE POWER OF THE PEEK

December 23, 2022

  Mrs. Garrison was my third-grade teacher, who more than once held up her stub and warned us never to stick our hands into an electric mixer while it was running. I learned many things we should and shouldn’t do, adhering to some and violating many. I embarked upon the latter this particular year, a […]

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Celebrating 40 Years in the Business

November 7, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_HdDS6tpaE

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I Never Rode on a Float

August 28, 2021

I never marched in a parade. I never climbed a mountain. I never published a book. I never invented anything. I never took in foster kids. I never surfed in the ocean or ran a race. I never had intelligent conversations with people of great influence. I never sailed a ship or galloped on a […]

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WHY IS IT SO HARD SOMETIMES TO ASK FOR HELP?

April 20, 2021

I couldn’t get up off the couch. Every bone, muscle, and cell in my skin burned, ached, and when I moved, it felt as if a hot poker was digging into my back left shoulder blade. I couldn’t take a breath deep enough to fill my lungs. With my husband out of town, I needed […]

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I NEED A RESURRECTION

December 30, 2020

Tomorrow I turn 67, and I have noticed an unsettling wafting its way into my aging age and now Covid filled days. It appears I’m disappearing. So what if I haven’t worked since March. So what if I’ve gained 8 pounds. So what if I’ve pulled a muscle that won’t unpull, and with the gyms […]

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I COULDN’T GET OUT OF THE WATER

August 15, 2019

During the summer, kids on our block carpooled to downtown Portland for swimming lessons in an old, moss encrusted, red brick building called the Neighborhood House. History shows it was one of the first establishments to offer Kindergarten to immigrant children. I know it had classrooms and offices, because I went once with Nancy and […]

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The Day Girls Were Allowed to Wear Pants to School

August 20, 2018

It was in the fall of 1969, we budding women shoved open the doors of Woodrow Wilson High School in Portland Oregon and strutted down the locker-lined, noisy halls with our heads held high, basking in a newly granted freedom. It was on this momentous day, at long last, women of every shape and size […]

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One Of Life’s Delighful Encounters

June 6, 2018

Got lost. Was late and getting dark. In and out looking for a camping spot in the middle of nowhere. Lost in Skull Valley. Silly us thinking we could just drop in and find a free camp site Memorial Day weekend. Then we met Harvey. He poked his head in our car window. Old, weather […]

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