* THIRD ISSUE *
WELCOME BACK TO THE MEMOIR GROUP ONLINE.
For our third issue, we're pleased to have guest writer Carolyn Culliton join the usual six suspects -- Paula Galloway, Dorothy Hammer, Orumé Hays, John Loomis, Lynda Myles and Leslie Rutkin.
Carolyn's story, Jane and Kate, tells of the shadow cast by her troubled mother-in-law over her spirited younger daughter; in 4 Hours Out of 72, Paula writes about the family drama surrounding her mother's decrepit old purse; Dotty is back in Africa in No Room at the Inn, this time crashing in the lobby of a hotel; Living With a Different Religion is Orumé's tale of her boarding school days in Lagos when Christians and Muslims got along; Fun With the Wall Street Journal is about John's first out-of-body adventure; in Suburban Meltdown, Lynda describes a ridiculously harrowing day in the 'burbs; and Leslie's Possessions advocates dumping most of them.
As usual the first paragraph of each story is below, and you can click "continue" to keep reading. Enjoy!
FUN WITH THE WALL STREET JOURNAL by John Loomis
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One day in 1994, while leafing idly through The Wall Street Journal, my eye fell on a small article with a picture of a middle-aged man, Robert Monroe. The article got off to a fast start: (quoting from memory) "Leading corporations send their executives to study intuition and out-of-body experiences at an unusual institute...."
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Living with a Different Religion
by Orumé Hays
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Lagos, the economic and financial capital of Nigeria, is a mixture of both Christians and Muslims. However, the majority of Lagosians are Christians, and in my family, we were raised as devout Catholics. As teenagers, my younger sister, Lillian and I stayed in the home of a Muslim friend of our father's for short periods of time, on our way to and from boarding school in the northern part of Nigeria. Everyone got along just fine....
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4 Hours out of 72  by Paula Galloway
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I need a new purse -- this one is shot, my mother said. Can you please take me to Macy’s so I can look for one before you bring me home? My mother spent Easter weekend with us. I took her home on Monday.
Ma, I know what’s going to happen. We’ll drive all the way to the mall, you’ll look at pocketbooks, see one you like, discover it’s $50 or more and argue with the saleswoman that you can’t believe how expensive it is, since you only paid $20 for yours, 20 years ago....
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  SUBURBAN MELTDOWN |
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by Lynda Myles
This is the story of a meltdown – mine. Not the first or the last in a lifelong history of standing strong and indomitable in the face of calamity and falling apart over trivia....
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NO ROOM at the Inn  By Dorothy Hammer |
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"But, Madam, we do not have your room. Your plane arrived late and we gave your room to someone else. We will have a room for you tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM when the gentleman occupying it must catch his plane." This was one of the risks that had confronted me only a few other times in all my years in Africa. This time the Hotel de Parc in Dakar, Senegal, which was generally a good stop, had let me down. It was 2:00 in the morning and I was beyond exhaustion....
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POSSESSIONS
by Leslie Rutkin
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I love that vase, I have to have it. I love those earrings. I have to have them. I love that book. I’m buying it. I love white, I’m buying 20 white things so I have a collection. I love green, so I’m buying 300 green things so I have another collection. I love I love I love. I want I want. I buy and buy....
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Jane and Kate
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by Carolyn Culliton
I was making breakfast for my husband and me on a beautiful morning at the end of April, 1985. I had no inkling that it would be one of those days that change your life....
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