The Reindeer Keeper

That's me with my hands on my cheeks sitting next to my cousin in a pretty dress. I don't know what we are doing, sitting there in the grass in the side yard off my grandparents' farmhouse. Right behind us would have been the door opening into the kitchen. To the left of us would have been the pump house. If I had to guess we might have been taking a break from playing although I don't look very happy. I was probably bored just sitting there. Maybe I wanted to get back to playing in our clubhouse. Looking at the picture I can imagine my mother saying one of her most often used phrases, "quit your lollygagging!" She'd say that all the time when, in her eyes, someone was going too slow or wasting time or spinning their wheels in indecision.It took me a few years to figure out what she meant. When I understood, her words made sense. The earliest recollection I have of her speaking those words to me was when we lived in the house by the lane. That was th...

When my oldest child was 3 or 4 years old we'd play Old Maid all the time. Usually my younger brother played along with us. It was always a fun time-full of laughs and jokes-until it got down to less and less cards held in each hand. That's when it became very quiet as the maneuvering and shifting of cards became the game instead of the game itself. All eyes would be on the backs of those cards and how each card was positioned and how each player played the waiting game. That was usually when my daughter blew it-especially if she was the one holding the Old Maid. And if she was the one holding that most unwanted card, she made it obvious by sticking it in the middle of her cards and holding it way above the rest. Of course she was only a little girl but she repeated this strategy every time-and every single time she'd end up with that horrid card and every single time she'd throw whatever cards she had left and go screaming to her room. Funny thing though-she'd alw...