Of Pigs and Shopping Malls

In 1988 I Flew To Switzerland To Visit My Son Who Was Studying In Basel. The City Is In The German-Speaking Part Of The Country And He’D Spent The Year Before He Left Studying The Language. He’D Reserved A Room For Me In The Same House He Stayed And We Spent A Pleasant Week Traveling And Sight Seeing. Flying Home It Occurred To Me That I’D Been Completely Dependent On Him While I Was There. I Didn’T Speak The Language So I Couldn’T Order Food. He’D Gotten Me A Place To Stay. He Knew The Geography So He Could Navigate And Keep Me From Getting Lost. Our Roles Had Reversed! When He Was A Baby He’D Depended On My Wife And Me For Shelter Food And Comfort And Now The Giver Had Become The Receiver. Maybe I Could Work These Ideas Into Some Sort Of Writing Project I Thought. I’D Written As An Avocation Since High School And A Girl In My High School Class Was An Editor At The Local Weekly Paper. In 1988 I Still Used A Typewriter So I Clacked Out A Few Pages And Sent Them To My Former Classmate Now Newspaper Editor. The Following Week She Phoned And Asked If I Could Send More. “Send More” Are The Sweetest Words Any Writer Wants To Hear. The Paper Put Me On A Schedule With Other Writers And Over The Next Ten Years I Wrote A Column About Me My Family My Jobs Etc. Every Six Weeks. In This Book I’Ve Shared Some Of What I Think Are The Best.