1955, San Jose, California ~ Reading was good company and I read whatever was in front of me. I read all four sides of the milk carton, Cheerios box, and C&H container. I read the editor’s notes, publication dates, and fine print in the front of True Detective, Reader’s … [Read more...]
Zane Gray and Nancy Drew
Audio: click arrow to play ~ I wondered if Mom moved a lot on purpose, holding out for the day I wouldn’t find my way home. Moving all the time made me anxious, especially with not having a good sense of direction. I got around on my own, and as soon as I figured out how to get back and forth to … [Read more...]
How did I get here? Sonoma Sun #1
Posted in the Sonoma Sun, on October 14, 2016, by Catherine Sevenau ~ In 1943, my father exchanged his iceman’s uniform for a suit and tie. Union Ice Company was having financial difficulties, and Dad had enough sense to get out of the cold. Offered a management position with Sprouse Reitz, he had … [Read more...]
How Did I Get Here?
In 1943, my father exchanged his iceman’s uniform for a suit and tie. Union Ice Company was having financial difficulties, and Dad had enough sense to get out of the cold. Offered a management position with Sprouse Reitz, he had the option of running a five-and-dime in Sonora or Sonoma. What a … [Read more...]
Final Migration
Elizabeth Ann "Liz/Betty" (Clemens) Duchi 1939 - 2004 My sister Liz knew everything about everything—and what she didn’t know—she made up. Her library was lined with books from architecture, antique lamps and art nouveau to tomes on history, the human body and Henry VIII. She also had every … [Read more...]
To Raise a Mother’s Eyebrows
March 1935 • Watsonville, California (excerpt from a family memoir) My oldest sister Carleen was born in Watsonville in 1935. Mom's sister Verda and her family lived close by, and the two families spent every weekend together. On Saturday nights they played cards or had dinner at the Chinese … [Read more...]
Labor Pains
Lordy, I swear it was easier giving birth to my children than birthing a book. To share my pain: Last September (2013) a whisper inside told me to record an audio of some passages from a family memoir I wrote ten years ago. After one editor, an illustrator, a book cover/website designer, a voice … [Read more...]
“It’ll Be Fun!” she says
“You know what we need to do?” she says. “Let’s take Deb to the coast for oysters. It’ll be fun!” she says. We'll take the scenic back road; the drive is beautiful,” she says. I love the coast and I love oysters so I agree it’s a grand idea. However, I have a brain lapse and forget about the scenic … [Read more...]
Heathens and Hellions
Sonora, California 1948 Dad left their guidance to the Church, Mom left it to the winds. Their children ran through the house like heathens and hellions, and not only did they have the run of the house, they had the run of the town. Most summer days the three older ones spent their time exploring … [Read more...]
A Family, an Old House, a Small Town
Everyone in Sonora, a community of about 3,000 people, knew our family. We lived there from 1942 until the early '50s; my father was active in the Catholic Church, local politics, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Lions, Elks, and Rotary clubs. Lean and on the lanky side, he wore … [Read more...]
No Room for Cowards
Another example of how our early incident forms our character and defines who we become in the world. The following story, including the pictures, is taken from on-line news sources: In a recent interview with CBS, Scott Pelley asked Hillary Clinton to tell a story about her mother from … [Read more...]
Determining Our Life’s Path
“It is not an original revelation that some who have weathered great challenges when they were young created great things as adults.” The Gift of Fear, by Gavin de Becker There is the young boy who, out of simple curiosity, took a match to the small white dingle balls edging the hem, then hid the … [Read more...]
How Hard Could It Be?
At the Leadership Sonoma Retreat I facilitated with Michael Naumer in 2000, I worked with Sharon on her "incident." Her unusual refrain of, "How hard could it be?" stuck with me for the last 16 years. Her "incident," flavored with spunk and determination, appeared repeatedly throughout her … [Read more...]
An “Incident” Revealed
In my last blog I wrote about my "incident" and how "unpacking" it helped me embrace what happened to me as a child. Having worked with it for years, I've developed an antennae for ferreting out people's defining moments. It's not like I'm on the look-out for it; when you spend enough … [Read more...]
A Defining Moment
The story of our life is not our life. It's simply our story. It is my belief that our way of being is subconsciously based on a defining moment that impacted us in our childhood. If we had the ability to take that moment, delaminate from it, and view it from a distance, we could see that what … [Read more...]
Elegy to My Father
CARL JOHN CLEMENS 1905 - 1986 Born on a Minnesota farm, you milked cows, picked corn, and shocked wheat. You hated farming; that’s why you left home, that, and your mother always telling you what to do. She cried when you left; you were only sixteen. You had nine siblings, all with the same Clemens … [Read more...]
Holy Cards, Hell, and High Water
(listen to audio) Summer 1949 • Sonora ~ Sonora was a backwater with no Catholic school, so every summer five young Franciscan nuns in black habits and white wimples were imported to bring the schoolchildren a proper Catholic education. Father Gilmartin, high in his pulpit, was deeply … [Read more...]
Beginnings and Endings
click arrow to listen to audio version: December 1952, Sonora, California The first time our mother left was in April of 1950, before I was two. Claudia was seven years older than I was, so that made her eight; Betty was ten, Carleen was fifteen, and Larry sixteen. Carleen snapped at us. “For … [Read more...]
On the Woo-Woo Side
Two events occurred on my trip to Southern California that caught my attention. The first was at the funeral of Kay’s (a high school friend) mom. Family and friends drove in a caravan with a police escort to the cemetery after the service at the Mormon Church up the road. Standing behind where the … [Read more...]
Private Matters
My father was German and my mother English, which could explain everything. On my dad’s side I’m a generation removed from hardworking, church-going, duty-bound dairy farmers. On my mother’s I come from freewheeling, drinking, smoking, gambling, hell-raising cattle ranchers with a couple of … [Read more...]
To My Wife-In-Law
Rebecca, the best thing that happened to our family was you. How could I not care for someone who loved my children as much as you did. You became my wife-in-law and the boys’ other mother. You filled in pieces that Bob and I didn’t have the ability to bring. I became the father, and you, the … [Read more...]
Visions of Hell on Earth: Chatfield Story
The Chatfield Story: Guest post from my cousins, Terry and Peg Chatfield-McCarty The flood of memories, the details of countless events recalled at late evening fireside, the myriad of horrid private images never shared with anyone—we can only begin to imagine how this original O’Dea Andersonville … [Read more...]
Teller of Tales
Teller of Tales This tale is a history, a fable, a prayer of those gone before me, now gathered with care. The diaries and pictures and letters enclosed deciphered my kin and what they supposed. Those who are living—their stories intact, Those gone before us—who knows what was fact? I met … [Read more...]
Perms
(Listen to Audio) Carleen always gave us a Toni the day before school pictures; she was making us beautiful. She shampooed us, yanked our snarls, swore at us to quit sniveling, then sat us in a row at the yellow Formica kitchen table. With old bath towels draped over our shoulders, Betty, Claudia, … [Read more...]
Credo For Today
Why am I here? Who am I? What do I believe? How shall I live my life? Where do I stand? When do I speak out? CREDO FOR TODAY Ten Commitments I shall honor Spirit: my God, your God, their gods, and the god within me. I shall honor my word, and take responsibility for what I … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- Next Page »