The dress which was sketched out in mama’s diary was real. It was too bad that she wasn’t here to explain the little remnants of herself she’d left behind. Ever since I went to that bank vault and claimed my inheritance, my life had become a nightmare – a labyrinth of questions that would never …
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She’s Gone Dancing
Dodie and I are taking shifts sitting by mama’s bedside in the ICU. Dodie being the “up at the crack of dawn” kind of person, takes the morning shift and I the afternoon. We meet for dinner in town and both of us visit her in the evening, carrying on conversations to the cadance of …
Missing
“What do you mean, by missing?” Francis snapped back at her sister Lenora on the phone. “Just that. He’s missing,” Lenora sniffed. This was the last thing she needed, Francis thought. She had a houseful of guests who had just sat down to a very late Thanksgiving dinner with dried-out turkey because …
WHITE PEOPLE DON’T GET TO DECIDE THAT NATIVE AMERICAN MASCOTS ARE NOT RACIST
When I was about six-years old, my dark-skinned great-aunt, Rose told me that her mother (my great-grandmother) was a Micmac Indian, or as she said, “Indian Princess”. She spoke to me in words that were supposedly Micmac which I have long forgotten, and I immediately became smitten with anything “Indian”. It was 1961, and nobody …
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ESCAPE
Prelude: A short piece originally preceded by a more substantial work, also an orchestral introduction to opera, however not lengthy enough to be considered an overture. “Can’t see a God damned thing,” he mumbled out loud while trying to wipe the condensation from the windshield. “Should have gotten that cataract surgery they nagged me about.” …
SWIMMING LESSONS
When I was growing up in the early 1960’s, every kid that I went to school with took swimming lessons at Stevie’sPond. Poor kids who lived across the tracks close to the mills, the scattered children of care-takers who lived on the large estates and the farm kids on the east side of town all …
TRUE COLORS HOW SMALL TOWN REPUBLICANS RAN ON A RACIST PLATFORM AND WON
You know the old saying, “If it walks like a duck…” which goes along with another adage from my childhood, “I smell a rat in Denmark”. These words came to mind when I first read an article about the young republican candidate, Jason Muscara, who was running for and subsequently won a seat on the …
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Los Niños de la Corizon
My sister Dodie and I were curled up on the leather couch in front of the fire at Grampy Bates’ ranch. I’d brought the hatbox I found in Mama’s old closet that afternoon, and we were rummaging through old photographs, letters and memorabilia I hadn’t seen before. On top of the pile there was …
The Bear-Ass Detective
Farming is not easy. Crops are dependent on the weather, and you never know when you might get wiped out by too much rain or drought. If you farm organically, like we do, your crops are vulnerable to invasive species like the gypsy moths that mowed down four rows of our blueberries a few …
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN
I’m not the kind of teacher who chose the profession because of a burning desire to nurture children and spend time with them. I was more interested in curriculum and the opportunity to teach history and science. My calling was born out of an idealistic craving for democracy and a deep desire to make a …
PICKING UP THE PIECES FROM THE SCHOOLS LEFT BEHIND
Now that public schools have been virtually destroyed by corporatism and banal policies which only served to line the pockets of an education corporate complex, who is going to pick up the pieces? There is no doubt that the emphasis on test scores, data, and a remedial approach to intervention have backfired and contributed to …
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CRASH
It was too much to ask, this tantalizing trauma on familiar ground. It was an unusual event, people spiraling to their death at 250 miles an hour. I had to know what the earth looked like. What had changed? Was it crushed? Were trees twisted, and bent to the ground? Or, was there a …
Whatever Happened to Mentorship?
ˈmentôrSHip,ˈmentərSHip/ noun noun: mentorship; plural noun: mentorships; noun: mentor-ship; plural noun: mentor-ships the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution. A true mentor is one who nurtures your strengths while acknowledging and healing your weaknesses. They remind you of your potential and guide you to live …
THE MEASURE OF DOGS
I don’t know what it is about dogs and why we love them so fiercely, or why we can’t go about our lives without them. I know that I can’t seem to find my compass without a dog in my life. My dog companions enable me to map the territory of the heart, and when …
That Old Dixie Flag Revised
Donna Dufresne I love the Quiet Corner of Connecticut – the soft, rolling hills dotted with farms, the little villages accented by white steeples and general stores, the pockets of a rural past. In fact, when I first came to this part of the state, I immediately felt at home. I befriended a series …
That Old Dixie Flag
Donna Dufresne I love the Quiet Corner of Connecticut – the soft, rolling hills dotted with farms, the little villages accented by white steeples and general stores, the pockets of a rural past. In fact, when I first came to this part of the state, I immediately felt at home. I befriended a series …
HATE IS NOT PROTECTED BY THE CONSTITUTION
Donna Dufresne Hate is not protected by the Constitution, any more than the right to kill people with semi-automatic weapons. The confederate flag and confederate statues, although historical relics, are more a reminder of hatred, racism and treason than a reverence for the past. Their presence in public spaces is offensive to anyone who holds …
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SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
Donna Dufresne Silence is complicity when it comes to hateful rhetoric. Donald Trump IS responsible for the crazy fools who act out his hateful, white supremacist, and racist speeches. And it is downright DEPLORABLE that his so-called base can’t take a break from their hatefulness, to mourn the deaths of people of faith who were …
HOW TO DESTROY A DEMOCRACY
Donna Dufresne First: Go after the schools by undermining public education. You create a punitive, high-stakes testing system which further divides communities by race and economic diversity, pushing us back into segregation and widening achievement gaps. You publish district test scores in the newspaper, which leads to an insidious type of red-lining, a secret code …
DECADE LATE, SAND DOLLAR SHORT
Donna Dufresne It’s been years since I’ve been to the beaches in Southern Maine. Perhaps even decades, and more than half a century since I peddled sand in a bucket as a child. We rarely went to the beach when I was growing up in the fifties & sixties. My mother didn’t drive, and my …