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Here’s the view just 3 weeks away from my 60th birthday. It does not feel good. I’d fall asleep thinking, “I know I haven’t been to Mass in 25 years, …
Revised 8 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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When I was in the third grade, Mrs. Mullen, my teacher, was invited to come to my house for coffee and (presumably) to discuss what a wonderful child …
Revised 7 Jul 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Growing up in North Weymouth, Massachusetts, in the 1950s holds some funny memories. We didn't have much money, and I can remember my dad coming home …
Revised 7 Jul 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Between December 1960 and October 1962, the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 14,048 unaccompanied Cuban children, ages 5-18, escaped Fidel Castro’s c…
Revised 8 Jun 2007 by
Beth Kane
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I was fortunate. My grandparents were Irish immigrants who taught their children that education was the way up and out. I also had a mother who was de…
Revised 5 Dec 2006 by
Beth Kane
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When I was a little kid, I loved babies more than anything, so I couldn’t believe my good luck when I was walking home from school one afternoon and s…
Revised 19 Jun 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Today, I told Mum 3 good things about herself. I plan to tell her another 3 things tomorrow.
1) You always stuck up for your kids.2) You neve…
Revised 28 Jun 2006 by
Beth Kane
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If I was stewing about something when I was a kid, my Dad would say, "It won't matter 100 years from now." When I was afraid of dying, Dad would say,…
Revised 30 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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If you look at your timeline on commontales as I just did, I'll bet that you'll see a cluster of stories in one short time frame that tells a lot abou…
Revised 16 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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You are missing an incredible woman if you don't know Almeta Keys. She amazes me. Almeta is one of 13 children. Her dad was a sharecropper who went t…
Revised 12 May 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I think we need to pass our stories on so they last forever ... long after we are gone. In some ways, my stories are like everyone's and in other ways…
Revised 4 Sep 2008 by
Beth Kane
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This was Holly's diet today: * Three cups of kibble * One golf glove * One doggie arthritis pill * One package of South Beach chocolate chip cookies (…
Revised 13 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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Ballou only comes to vist. But we love it when he does. The vet has assured us that he is not overweight, he is simply "big boned." I'd love to hear t…
Revised 9 Apr 2006 by
Beth Kane
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The evening started out as a family Bar-B-Que. LoLaDrO prepared wonderful appetizers, and we all shared family stories with the Virginia, California, …
Revised 16 Nov 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Michael Kane had a mouse in his apartment that was driving him nuts a couple of years ago. The mouse would come out for a snack and to watch TV, so in…
Revised 7 Jul 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Art and I drove north along the coast toward Viña del Mar when we saw a small painted sign reading "Isla Negra." We’d been warned that the sign was ea…
Revised 13 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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Art and I went to Chile for our 35th anniversary, rented a car, and set off to the Central Valley’s rich farmland between the Andes and the Coastal mo…
Revised 2 Jul 2007 by
Beth Kane
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I love Tom Kane's profile photo on the homepage. There he is with that "charming" expression he wore permanently during his teenage years. And there's…
Revised 18 May 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Year after year, my family and my sister's spent our summer and winter vacations together. They were wonderful times and offer some pretty funny stori…
Revised 8 Sep 2007 by
Beth Kane
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The family was trying to date the photo that goes with this story. It was taken Easter 1985. Months earlier I decided to surprise Michael with a homem…
Revised 12 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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On Michael Kane's third birthday, Daddy asked him, "Michael, did you put the piece I need for your new wagon in the hole in the stereo?" "I don't know…
Revised 11 Jan 2006 by
Beth Kane
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When Tom Kane was 4 years old, he came downstairs late one night because he couldn't sleep. He had just one question. "Do dentists wear underwear?"TOM…
Revised 5 Jan 2006 by
Beth Kane
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When Bethie was 4 years old, Grandpa smelled her bare feet and teasingly said, "Phew!" Bethie looked at him seriously and said, "That's pollution, Gra…
Revised 7 Feb 2006 by
Beth Kane
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A very long time ago, I gave "The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown to my then 4-year-old son, Tom. I wrote an inscription that said something lik…
Revised 17 Jan 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I took my daughter to the pediatrician when she was 24 months old for her yearly checkup. The doctor showed her a few pictures of common items such as…
Revised 24 Feb 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I am Chris's godmother, so naturally I think he's brilliant. My sister, Sandy, and I used to take 3-year-old Chris grocery shopping with us. Sandy alw…
Revised 3 Apr 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I just learned that after more than 150 years, Western Union will no longer send telegrams. E-mails have taken their place. I miss the idea that I'll …
Revised 16 Nov 2006 by
Beth Kane
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In 1968, my parents’ new neighbor, Mrs. Townley, learned that I was going to Chile for my honeymoon. She asked if I would deliver a parcel to a friend…
Revised 25 Jun 2007 by
Beth Kane
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I was anxious to make a good impression on my future mother-in-law when I visited her in Brooklyn in 1966 and she was doing the same. Nannie used her …
Revised 11 Jan 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Not only was my sister brilliant (the coin of the realm in our family), she was very good to me. Unfortunately, she went away to college in 1956. I wa…
Revised 4 Jan 2007 by
Beth Kane
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My aunt gave me this diary when I entered 8th grade. It was a time for love, miscues and self-loathing, drunkenness, rejection and ignorance, and …
Revised 1 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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One of the things that happens when your mother is the child of immigrants (my grandparents were from Ireland) is that you are pushed to excel in ever…
Revised 20 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I have no idea when the idea of Mite Boxes came about, but they are as much a part of growing up Catholic as going to confession and telling the pries…
Revised 12 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I was born in 1946 and was a Forsyth kid in the 1950s. In the days when doctors made house calls, our family doctor, Dr. Drake, discovered that my ver…
Revised 28 Sep 2006 by
Beth Kane
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North Weymouth, Massachusetts Late summer, 1956 Concord grapes, cranberries, and wild blueberries are the only fruits native to North America. And sin…
Revised 11 Feb 2008 by
Beth Kane
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Whenever the Jamestown Stamp Company's "Around the World Collection" arrived at our house, my brother, Richard, and I spent a long time studying the e…
Revised 23 May 2006 by
Beth Kane
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If you look at your timeline on Commontales as I just did, I'll bet that you'll see a cluster of stories in one short time frame that tells a lot abou…
Revised 3 Jul 2006 by
Beth Kane
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This is not so much a story as it is a reminiscence of my brother, Richard. We are now estranged, but I still love him, and when I think of him, I hav…
Revised 15 Aug 2007 by
Beth Kane
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This is my first Christmas without parents. Dad died in his sleep a decade ago. His birthday was Christmas Eve. And Mum died this May. I've been think…
Revised 10 Dec 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I'm the only person I know who took their lunch to school in a "barf" bag. (Here's my 2nd grade class photo. I'm in the center -- 6th from left in Row…
Revised 24 Feb 2006 by
Beth Kane
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I used to get 10 cents allowance as a kid, so it took forever to buy anything decent. Jump ropes cost a dime, so did bubble stuff. You could buy a cou…
Revised 12 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Kyren was my first dog; his brother, Tanga, belonged to my cousins who lived in the next town. Both puppies were beautiful, but Tanga had the habit of…
Revised 19 Aug 2008 by
Beth Kane
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One January day the pipes in my parents house burst and my parents were out of town. All the pipes were overhead and apparently the water had been ru…
Revised 14 Sep 2006 by
Beth Kane
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Revised 3 Jan 2007 by
Beth Kane
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Weymouth is the second oldest town in Massachusetts. I was born there (so was Abigail Adams, but she became more famous). Weymouth is a suburb of Bost…
Revised 9 Jan 2007 by
Beth Kane
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I met Helen Taylor shortly before her death. I had hoped to write a children’s book about Helen, but even though her life affected millions of America…
Revised 28 Mar 2006 by
Beth Kane
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When I was a kid, the ultimate in comfort food was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wasn't too particular about the flavor of jelly, either. Kids…
Revised 20 Feb 2006 by
Beth Kane
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My parents first date was planned much like a military maneuver. There were reconnaissance missions, negotiations, last minute changes of plan, somet…
Revised 4 Mar 2008 by
Beth Kane
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My great-grandfather perished the night the steamship Portland went down.My father used to talk to me about living at his grandmother’s house in Portl…
Revised 7 Apr 2008 by
Beth Kane
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For four years, from 1861 to 1865, my great-grandfather, William F. Irwin, fought for both the Union (5th Maine, Co. G) and the Confederate Armies (No…
Revised 21 Apr 2008 by
Beth Kane
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I was searching for information about my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Winslow Coffin, when I read the following about Elizabeth Holmes Winslow o…
Revised 11 Jan 2007 by
Beth Kane
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Revised 24 Apr 2008 by
Beth Kane
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Revised 24 Aug 2008 by
Beth Kane
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