1964 In the summer of 1964, as I drove my family’s Rambler to the Santa Monica beach club where I’d snagged a job entertaining preschoolers, I’d blast the radio whenever Martha and the Vandellas showed up singing “Dancing in the Street.” Callin’ out around the worldAre you ready for a brand new beatSummer’s here and the time is rightFor dancing …

My younger son, now 37, has played the cello since he was four. I fell in love with the instrument as much as he did. For years I’ve kept an eye out for “street” cellists, far from concert halls, who give themselves to what makes the cello unique: its perfect range, from warm low pitches to bright higher notes, which …

On sunny school days, I often see the eight-year-old boy who lives near us running across the meadow we share, his long blond hair flowing as he aims his slingshot, sometimes at trees, sometimes at the deer or turkeys who graze in the meadow.  I asked my neighbor if he knew anything about the boy with the flowing hair and …

“There’s a big orange cat stuck in a tree a few houses up,” a neighbor walking down our street told me as I carried geranium pots from my car.  “Does it belong to you?” While not ours, I knew the cat she was referring to. His owners call him Lux but we call him Reds, the name of an old orange cat …

         I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end. ― Michelle Obama, Becoming When I was eight, growing up in Princeton, New Jersey, I spent many Saturday’s skating at …

When Copco Dam No. 1 , on the Klamath River as it crosses from Oregon to California, succumbed to dynamite last year, it unleashed a torrent of water into the abandoned stream bed below, overgrown with willows and weeds. For local whitewater enthusiasts, it offered the ride of a lifetime. (See video above!) “No turning back: The largest dam removal …

January 30, 2024 Canvassing is not for the faint of heart, especially if you are allergic to rejection like me.  A few weeks ago, I belatedly signed up to gather the last round of signatures for a local petition called “Jackson County for All,” a citizen’s initiative to reconstitute Jackson County’s Board of Commissioners, a personal nemesis in my four-year …