When I was a child — after the Jurassic period but not by much — we spent some summer days at my aunt and uncle’s lake cabin. We fished, swam and skied when we weren’t sitting around playing Canasta and telling family stories. One story I cherish is about the time Uncle Ben arrived at …
I was walking into my in-laws’ house from the porch and trying not to trip over their dog, Misty. “Excuse me,” I said. My mother-in-law thought I was talking to her and said, “What?” “I was talking to the dog,” I said. After a few minutes, I was returning to the back porch, when I …
There was a time when it could take days, weeks or months before someone found out about a tragedy in a neighboring state, much less one several states away. Readers relied on editors, the gatekeepers who decided if the horrific news had any value to their readers. Not too long ago, tragic things could happen …
During a nice meal out, I tried not to look over at the kids who kept crying and fussing. There were two little ones — “new models,” I call them — who competed to make the most noise possible. I don’t mean to complain because my wife and I went through those days with our …
We wrapped a present with glittery paper, and now tiny blue dots sparkle throughout the kitchen. They resist cleaning. It’s a dot-by-dot project, so I’m on the verge of deciding it’d be a shame to get rid of them. They liven up the place. morrisstories.com
Sometimes during my daily walks, I encounter a kid who’s the same age I was when I was his age. He’s not happy with his DayGlo orange shorts. They’re the most comfortable pair he owns, he told me, but they’re easy for people to see. When he climbs a cedar tree in his front yard …
In movies set in the past, characters sometimes marvel at the wonders of “modern” ingenuity: “The new-fangled telephone will revolutionize our lives and guarantee more time to do what’s truly important.” “The miracle of plastic will save the world.” “With this cutting edge pill, people’s chronic pain will disappear without the thinnest threat of addiction.” …
We were at a show and started talking to the guy in front of us. The topic of newspapers came up. When people start talking about newspapers, they usually don’t have good things to say. I’ve taken checks from newspapers for most of my life, so I have an allergy against saying bad things about …
You can’t make a TV show about people who like to sit around, read and watch TV. No one would watch because we wouldn’t be doing anything. The gray matter between our ears could be firing with all kinds of crazy ideas and commentary, but viewers expect action and conflict from TV. With most shows, …
We went out to watch a play on a Friday night, and a teenage girl in the audience wore a KISS shirt. A thousand years ago, I’d owned the vinyl album the shirt advertised, and I’d listened on a cruddy record player that had been designed for “Old MacDonald” and “The Wheels on the Bus.” …
