(From the Archives of Not Your Grandmother's 70, October 2018) What would you tell your younger self? Ah, the time machine question. I was recently challenged to write about what I would tell my younger self. Obviously: “Keep writing!” I wrote as a young girl. When...
Dinner for one? No thanks. Wander around a strange city by myself? Nope. Some women delight in solo travel. They wander through Paris, Peru, and Egypt. I know these women. They are not me. But then, how am I going to see the world? Watching travel channels won't do. I...
I hate going to a restaurant by myself. Or movies. Or very much else. I am just not a solo person. So, it is no wonder that I had very little travel experience until I was much older. However, once I discovered an alternative, I have...
(The picture above: Graduation from Western State University College of Law in Irvine, California. To my left is my son-in-law Doug Vavrick and to my right is my daughter Kathleen Quirk.) Funny, sometimes we experience what would be life-changing events, and we know...
I have been reminiscing over past posts, and this one still rings true. It is amazing how life repeats itself. Here we go: Today I took a walk on the beach, hoping to find a solution to a problem I had been wrestling with. I found an answer, but it was not what I...
I hate it. Always have. I feel like the naïve young woman who got on a train and traveled solo across the country from Spokane, Washington, to Dallas, Texas. I had to navigate changing trains, ordering meals, and getting my luggage. But there was my handsome fiancé at...
How did it happen? It wasn’t always so. The Air Force Officer was with his young wife (that would be me). The pretty new teacher. Once, an organization needed to nominate someone for “Man of The Year,” and I was selected because the nominee had to be under 35. I was...
I have a concert ticket. What is it I hope to see? I feel that I have seen all the concerts on my bucket list. One of my earliest was one I didn’t know was a big deal until much later in life. I wish I had paid more attention. I was in a tiny jazz club in Seattle. The...
I didn’t really lose it. It was just put away for a long time. I don’t know when I found it again or what made me even look for it. After all, I had more exciting necklaces to wear, and the simple little gold pendant was not meeting my fashion sense at the time. Now...
1962 is known by most people in the Pacific Northwest as the year of the Seattle World’s Fair. You know, the Space Needle, the arches at the Science Center; the fountains. I never made it to the world’s fair. Although the world’s fair did play a role in what I will...
I was not an adventurous traveler until I turned 70 years old. My husband and I took road trips and visited national parks. I went on a group tour to China and walked the Great Wall—but that’s a story for another day, and I never considered it a great adventure. Well,...
