• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

My Ever-Changing Family

Meet my changing, shrinking, growing family. Here you'll find stories of married life, little kids, grown-up kids, the empty nest, cousins and ancestors, aging parents, and the view from the second half of life.

How Selective Service Made a Man of My Son — Without Even Trying

February 23, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The 1998 Selective Service pamphlet -- I left it at the post office.

In a few weeks my son would be eighteen, time to sign up for Selective Service. I’d filled out forms for him for years, but this was different. This piece of paper could send him off to war. Read more.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 19
  • Page 20
  • Page 21

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

It’s Spring and My Garden Looks Dreadful. Here’s Why

heuchera-and-iceland-poppy-clashing

My garden looks dreadful. Here’s why. My plants won’t cooperate. The iris wants to be an iris. The azalea, an azalea. The poppy, a poppy.  Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Small children with grandmother on Lake Michigan beach. Photo by BF Newhall.

A Manners-Challenged Kid Who Became the Apple of His Grandma’s Eye

barbara falconer newhall on instagram

Where’s Barbara? On Instagram, of Course

Ten-year-old Peter Newhall has just won at Final Fantasy I in 1991. Photo by BF Newhall

Confessions of a Nintendo Mom: The Day I Unplugged My Eight-Year-Old

giants-cap-thriller-fest-cap

Widowed: Caught in the Time Warp of Grief

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2026 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in