Author Archives: lisameltzerpenn

HOT OFF THE PRESS!

I spent grades three-through-five in “Multi-Age” a class that spanned three classrooms opened up into one. My friend Janine likes to Throwback Thursday and periodically post our class pictures to Facebook, and her latest got me thinking about that time. Multi-Age was a very progressive class: we sat in a big circle every morning andContinue reading “HOT OFF THE PRESS!”

Washing Your Hands, A Primer

Handwashing was the first thing I learned back in nursery school: Turning a bar of soap over and over in my hands and luxuriating in the creamy lather, the sensory bliss, though the soap would inevitably leave my skin dried out afterward. The feel, the look, the sound of the water running into the longContinue reading “Washing Your Hands, A Primer”

The Party Trick of Memory

What is the role of memory? I started two of the books from my library book stack simultaneously and they both drew me in so immediately I was alarmed I couldn’t actually read them both at the same time. So I read them back to back. Though they deal with different themes, settings, and socialContinue reading “The Party Trick of Memory”

The Book Stack

In mid-March, just before the public libraries closed for what would turn out to be a very long time, I stopped by my local branch in hopes that two of my book club holds had arrived. (I’m in three separate book clubs these days.) They had not made it to the shelf in time. SoContinue reading “The Book Stack”

The Pier

Saturday morning Jon and I leave our hotel and walk the one block to the beach. We’re on our first trip since shelter-in-place began, a one-night sojourn to Santa Cruz for our anniversary. The thick gray fog has lifted, and all across the beach a floating veil of mist visible to the naked eye isContinue reading “The Pier”