The gripping scene of Ben Hur as a galley slave is still vivid in my mind. After seeing that classic movie almost 30 years ago, the horrible inhumanity of man to man surfaced in both my nighttime dreams and daytime thinking. How could people do it? How could they make […]
Marie Snider – This Side of 60
The year was 1954. The day was Nov. 27. We were married in a simple, but beautiful, ceremony in upstate New York. The brilliant colours of fall had given way to winter and we spent our honeymoon at nearby Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains. Then we moved to the […]
It’s been years since we’ve sent Christmas cards, but still a few of our closest friends remember us every year. We hear from my college friend, Margaret, a writer in El Sobrante, Calif.; from Lee and Fran, my uncle and aunt from Wooster, Ohio; from Harvey and Darlene, who live […]
It was years ago, but I still remember the fun of being a pampered six-year-old. My baby brother was too small to play with and I was too small to baby-sit him. Thus, I had lots of time to read and play out my fantasies, and sit lazily under my […]
I love the seasons of the year. Winter brings back memories of being snowbound—not going to school and sitting by the fire with a book. With popcorn and hot chocolate. Sledding, tobogganing, cross-country skiing, and making angels in the snow. And Christmas at Grandma’s—the highlight of the year. Then came […]
Often in speeches, I ask the audience “How many of you would like to be 100 years old some day?” and ask for a show of hands. You’d be surprised how few people raise their hands. This, in spite of the rising possibility that they may actually live to 100. […]
It’s been 16 years since we’ve seen The Greatest Show on Earth. That was the year my mother died, and she was our motivation. Oh, but she loved the circus! She tried to look at all three rings at once. She shuddered when the high-divers exchanged places and the tightrope […]
I love to walk barefoot in the summertime and feel the grass tickle my toes. And I love to walk barefoot in the winter and feel the softness and the warmth of the rug on the bottoms of my feet. I love to let my dishes go without washing while […]
It was more than 50 years ago when I volunteered one summer at a migrant camp in Utica, N.Y. The workers came in trucks from Florida where they picked oranges, then journeyed up the east coast to dig potatoes, into New York state to pick beans, and finally, on to […]
Last Saturday, I participated in a ritual. A ritual that has been an important part of my life for the past 30 years—attending a fall festival at the small college in our town. This community event began with a quartet singing Broadway tunes in a large tent set up for […]
I’ve had a dream for more than half-a-century. The dream of living in a wooded area, maybe in a log cabin. Living close to the earth with a big garden and apple trees, with huge logs burning in the fireplace when the winter storms come. I always envisioned my woodland […]
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an old woman some day. Maybe it’s because I admired my grandmother so much–spunky, always laughing, with peppermint drops in her apron. Once, when I gave her a five-pound box of chocolates with money I earned myself, she advised […]
