The Trouble With Daffodils — and My Writing

Daffodil-growing-california-in-March-photo by BF Newhall

Daffodil. Photos by BF Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I don’t like daffodils. I feel about daffodils the way I feel about some of my writing – too damned cheerful. Too nicey-nice. Too tidy. Too certain that in the end everything’s going to come out just fine, that all shall be well. [Read more...]

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A Case of the Human Condition: Four-Year-Old Girls — The Last Bastion of Pretty

4 preschool ballerinas in tutus at barre. Photo by BF Newhall

Four pretty girls. Christina is second from right in the pink leotard and white tutu. Photos by BF Newhall.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall, The Oakland Tribune, September 1987

“What does Christina have on today?” M.J. wanted to know.

M.J. and Christina are friends. They ran into each other while shopping for tutus.

M.J., who is 4, was wearing a dress.

She looked pretty.

Christina, newly 4, was wearing dungarees.

She looked OK.

My sister-in-law Alice had warned me [Read more...]

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A Case of the Human Condition: A Child Is Born — And So Is a Grandpa

Berrypicking grandfather and grandson. Photo by BF Newhall

My son Peter berry picking with his Grandpa. My dad rigged up the berry containers for the expedition. Photo by BF Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My friend Jake is a man in his prime. He does triathlons, reads good books, knows all the best hiking trails, drinks nice wines, and likes nothing more than a good, scrappy conversation. In other words, Jake has never been anybody’s rickety old grandpa.

Until recently. [Read more...]

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A Case of the Human Condition: The Center of the Universe? It’s a Little Beach in Michigan, of Course

My son Peter gets to know the outlet at Lake Michigan. Photos by BF Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall, The Oakland Tribune, August 9, 1987

Up in Siskiyou mountain country, in the northwest corner of California, there is a spot known to the Karuk tribe as Kota-Mein. In the Karuk language, Kota Mein means “center of the world.” Like their ancestors before them, the Karuk people hike up to sacred spots like Kota-Mein, Chimney Rock and Doctor Rock to talk to the Great Spirit and to receive power.

I have never been to Kota-Mein, but I have been to Bass Lake, Mich.

If I were drawing a map of the world, its center would be at Bass Lake, just where its outlet flows into the great, blue Lake Michigan. [Read more...]

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A Case of the Human Condition: Geographic Mobility in America — Watching My Kids Disappear

Peter at the airport with his bags 2000. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

Peter leaves home for college. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Most of my grandmother’s children – there were seven of them – lived out their lives within walking distance of their mother’s white frame house in Scottville, Michigan. Not my father. He moved away.

Which is why, when I think of my Grandma Falconer I see the pince-nez, the soft pink skin and the silvery-white hair swept into an up-do — but I also see my grandmother’s figure standing motionless at the foot of her driveway, watching as my family drives out of town. [Read more...]

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