Articles by Ray Adler

Mother told me this story about her father, Charles Everett Howard. The man was old, shrunken in body, expansive in mind. Finances were skimpy, always had been, partly because he…

Here’s another one of Mom’s many stories. I first met the old man when he was 70, but tales of his exploits had preceded our meeting. Early he had been…

As my mother grew up, she became acquainted with kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms, plus a few others. Not until she was a bride and moved across the…

My younger sister Theresa only remembers top-loading washers and matching front-loading automatic dryers. Then, any day was wash day. My older sister Verna remembers conventional washers with an attached wringer….

My parents went through the Great Depression and were very conservative. They told this story about their friend. Mary Catherine invited us to an afternoon party. She knew we had…

My mother told me the following stories about her childhood. My friend is 84 years old. She lives many miles away, so we sometimes communicate by letter. On rare occasions…

Mother told me this story one day. My relative was an old man. He had had a stroke and was confined to bed. I went to see him hoping to…

It is always fun to hear your parents explain their perception of your childhood. Mom wrote the following story for me. History is, according to Webster, past events, especially those…

Trying to expand my horizons from my Hoosier farm-boy background, on two occasions during my time at Purdue I had a Chinese roommate. The first was very bright. He lived…