Some people can only remember horrific instances of childhood agony. Traumatic childhood experiences. I remember my toys.
When I was real young, barely old enough to walk, it was Lincoln Logs, the wooden building blocks and red plastic roofs. Shortly after it was a steel erector set. For some reason I loved building things up as high as I could until all the pieces were used. My towers didn’t resemble anything and they weren’t structurally sound; I just wanted to see how high I could build before gravity and poor foundations …

Eleven feet of snow sits outside my door.
Not many people can comprehend eleven feet of snow. They hear it, and they think, well, I’m five and a half feet, so two of me…c’mon, you’ve got to be kidding. The snow can’t possibly be that high! True, it’s not. The snow settles and the bottom foot or so turns to an inch of ice, and it sinks even more into itself so that it is half the height it was when it fell, but that’s only after a bit of time. …

By Bernadette Sukley
Valentine’s Day: Tell him/her where you are going ahead of time and make sure you are dressed appropriately. So he’s not wearing jeans to Chez Yvonne or she’s not in black satin for the Wings & Things’ Light Beer Night. Choose a place that’s meaningful for both of you. The classics (wine, roses, chocolate and poetry) are a great default in case you have to stay home.
Birthdays: Typically celebrated at home, the date of his or her birth is the perfect (and least-expensive ) way for the two …

When you’re young, everything seems big.
I was a little boy, not much larger than the stuffed bear that sat on my bed, when we drove up to an old wooden barn the size of a factory, the wood gray as a porpoise. It was early fall and the trees were bright yellow, like a preschooler had colored them with a crayon. It was my fourth birthday and my parents had a special surprise for me, though I didn’t know it. I thought they were hunting for antiques, but there was …