The morning is fall at 63°. We have a bright sun and a mostly blue sky. I have chores. Mainly I have to vacuum. I can’t walk down the hall without hair balls flying into the air. This is a dusty house.

I found one of my political buttons, one I hadn’t added to the framed collection of buttons hanging in the hall. Those buttons are for democratic candidates going as far back as Kennedy. The one I found in the drawer was one I had picked up just to collect, never to wear. The button is huge, round, sort of the size of a small pancake. In the middle is a smiling Richard Nixon. That alone is scary enough. Around the button it says at the top, “Nixon’s The One.” At the bottom it says, “Nixon For President.” It is from the 1960 election. I remember getting the button at the Nixon political headquarters, a store front, in my town. I was in the eighth grade. It was the first election to which I not only paid attention but also favored a candidate.

In the eighth grade, we had a field trip to the Museum of Science. That was a big event as it was the first and only field trip we ever had. We were given a worksheet with several questions relating to the exhibits. It seemed daunting. I had the idea that my friends and I would divide the questions and then share our answers. Because the answers were right out in the open for the finding, we had no qualms. We completed the entire sheet. We even saved enough time we watch some of the events. I remember sitting on the floor and watching Spooky the Owl. I was amazed when he could spin his head and flap his wings on command.

When I was in high school, a few of my friends and I went to Boston to see the movie Cleopatra. I remember we all got dressed up for our trip to the city. We were chauffeured in town by the bus and the subway. We walked from the subway stop to the Music Hall, now the Wang, to see the movie. I was awed by how beautiful and fancy the theater was. It had chandeliers and murals on the walls and ceiling and private balcony seating along the sides. The ladies’ room even had regal red velvet covered lounges. I sat on one for a while luxuriating in the elegance. I’ve never been to a more beautiful ladies’ room.

This entry was posted on September 19, 2026 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.