#1
The Senate Post Office Playground
A young boy tags along to the U.S. Senate Post Office at 2:00 AM, discovers rubber stamps, hole punches, and the thrill of riding the Senate subway.
From the Journals
Family Stories
These stories are drawn directly from Dad's journals, which he kept during the 1980s and early 1990s, and from his multi-chapter Personal History memoir, written during the same period. They offer a window into his childhood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, family road trips, and the small moments that define a family across generations. Where possible, his own words appear in direct quotes.
1940s–1950s
#2
Summers at the Apache Drugstore
A six-year-old's paradise: comic books, milkshakes on professional mixers, and early-morning breakfasts with the drugstore cowboys of Mesa.
#3
Cross-Country Road Trips
Pre-freeway, pre-seatbelt odysseys from D.C. to Mesa, powered by baloney sandwiches, breakdown detours, and endless questions whispered into Dad's ear.
#12
Sledding on Tunlaw Road
When Washington snow hit hard enough, the D.C. Police barricaded the street and the whole neighborhood came out for barrel fires, sled runs, and a block party in the dark.
DadPamela
#14
Air Raid Drills & the Kindergarten Mat-Wetters
Cold War duck-and-cover drills, a multi-color pencil that took weeks of saving, and the daily ritual of pretending not to peek during nap time.
1984–1987
1988–1989
#10
Peter & Aaron's All-Night Hustle
Two teenage boys work through the night clearing a vacant lot, haul boxes into the attic, vacuum the closet unprompted, and earn a civilized dinner at Wendy's.
#15
A School Named Goodman
Twenty-seven years after Great-Grandpa Clifford's death, Chandler dedicated a brand new elementary school in his name, and eight-year-old Matthias preserved his own Sunday School talk in Dad's journal.
