For the mothers who delivered babies and were caught up in the crack cocaine era of the 1980s and 1990s, Mother’s Day has a different place in their lives. If drug use was suspected and the testing results were positive, a mother…
Family members never gave us the information as to who our minstrel relative was. “He’s related” was all I heard back from my mother after spotting this old-time photo among her boxes of treasures. I grew up in Los Angeles around…
April has been designated National Humor Month. While laughter is said to be therapeutic and an opportunity to make life’s burdens a little easer to bear, there’s also the chance to learn a few good lessons from the occasion that…
We saw a little girl tumble from the back of the shopping cart her father was pushing and hit the concrete floor; head first. She fell from the section designed for merchandise. A younger child was in the seat, at…
Welcome to the first week of Black History Month. Quite an advancement, some would say, from back in 1926 when the historian, Dr Carter J. Woodson, created Negro History Week. But knock on just about any door, anywhere in America,…
When it comes to making Resolutions for 2019, the kids in the household ought to join in on making it a sustainable family activity. A joint effort (not talking about “pot”) for New Year’s Resolutions can bring some real accomplishments…
On Facebook the other day, I saw my smiling 50 something daughter’s post with an American flag wrapped behind her urging her followers to register to vote. Ah, some forty years ago, my girl Pia and her sister Peggy were…
Where were they? A few weeks ago, headed home driving north from the other part of beautiful Pasadena, one of my daughters, who was in the front seat of my car spotted a small gathering of people standing on the…
The old, the new, the wise and the wide-eyed. Pasadena dazzles the world every year with its fabulous Rose Parade that moves east on Colorado Blvd, then north on Sierra Madre to its final resting place at Victory Park located…
Not only will the stockings be hung by the chimney with care expecting St. Nicholas to soon be there, but so to have the price tags been hung on department store items expecting some unaware shoppers will soon be there…
“Them boys didn’t do that,” Myricks maintains ,”they aren’t those type of boys to do that.” Smith’s mother goes on to say, “she doesn’t believe the son who loved video games and dreamed of playing in the NFL would rob.…
“Hey, wait just one minute, isn’t this just around the corner from Barbara and Elzie? I shrieked at our television set as I watched throngs of people, my people, swarming into the streets overturning cars, throwing bricks, rocks and bottles…
There are so many women whose lives and contributions have demonstrated amazing courage and whose deeds influenced younger generations. How many? The list is formidable. How then do I meet the challenge of choosing who to write about? She was…
While there are many techniques parents employ in hopes of ensuring their children grow into adulthood as productive and socially accepted citizens, President Donald Trump’s “calling out Nordstroms” on behalf of his 35-year-old daughter, Ivanka, is an example, I suppose,…
What a difference an innauguration makes! A friend asked me, back when she just knew Hillary was going to be elected the first woman president of the good ol’ USA, if I were going to DC for the historical occasion.…