Join me for a little lunch. Or something. Sometimes.
None of it was perfect, but what is?
When you have many children, it’s easy to forget one at Christmas. It hurts if you’re the forgotten one.
No one ever fought over the ribbon candy. But when I crumbled its sugary bones between my tongue and the roof of my mouth, I found it good.
May we cherish those we love, and remember those with whom we’ve shared happy winter times.
I’m not a fan of Thanksgiving. I wish I was more like Cousin Lois and could see the holiday as an opportunity for reflection, food, and fun.
All Soul’s Day on November 2 is also known as Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, or The Day of the Dead.
It’s Halloween, with snow falling in Stearns County. Almost All Soul’s Day. Time for a ghost story. A true story, which I retell more than half a century later.
We all have our ways when it comes to Halloween candy.
You’d be crazy to cross Mr Smith’s garden. But one night I had to.
All families have secrets. As people get older or pass away, the secrets come to light. Like Grandma Lena’s.
We creatures of the earth shouldn’t eat each other’s lips. That’s my firm view.
Lena and Mina were my grandmothers – Stearns County, Minnesota women who grew up and raised families in small towns around the Lake Wobegon Trail. Born in the USA, they spoke German and had German accents. As did my parents, who spoke only German until they went to school. As do some of my cousins, who have never lived anywhere but Stearns County. We’re quirky folks, like those in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Stearns town of Lake Wobegon. I’m Laurie Hilsgen, and if you’re reading this, you might be Wobegonian, too. Let’s celebrate our loony ways. Oh ja!
