Family Reunion, 1979
In 1979, the year I was eight, my father’s family reunion was held at a public park in Newport News, Virginia. It was a place of woods and creeks and picnic tables, set against the eastern shore of the southern part of the James River, a few miles before it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.
The Gloves of Summer
What is the first sensation that comes to mind when you think about a baseball glove?
Solid Sound
As in many working-class Italian American households, mine was one where loud voices and other sounds constantly ricocheted off the walls, a condition that made for a loving family life but worked against a reading habit.