Which Came First, the Chicken or the Helicopter?
By Richard E. Peck My home is Kaua‘i; I vacation 10 months a year in New Mexico. There are differences that I enjoy explaining to haole visitors here. In New Mexico I live high and desert dry (6,000...
View ArticleMiss Ryan’s May Day
By Richard E. Peck Miss Ryan was an older woman, at least 25, and all the boys in our two-room country school loved her. She taught grades 5-through-8, before busing, and teachers’ aides, and...
View ArticleFather’s Daze
By Richard E. Peck Celebrating Mother’s Day is a piece of cake. Take Mom out to dinner. She gets to eat rubber chicken and gutta percha peas in a restaurant jammed with 312 strangers also wearing...
View ArticleMy Mainland Cousin
By Richard E. Peck We live on an island. Our Mainland friends and relatives misunderstand everything about that, starting with the time – as I learned when the phone rang at 04:00 yesterday....
View ArticleRemember Your First Pizza?
By Richard E. Peck It happened on a Sunday night in the USMC barracks at the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. Three other PFCs swung by my bunk to ask if I wanted to go with them “for pizza.” “Sure,” I...
View ArticleA Slight Heart Attack
By Richard E. Peck The results of my annual physical exam? A clean bill of health: low cholesterol level, low/normal blood pressure, low triglycerides (whatever they are), spotless X rays … all...
View ArticleWho’s Been Writing on My Shirt?
By Richard E. Peck The tie my aunt gave me for high school graduation had writing on it. Halfway down one edge were two embroidered initials, “CM.” I assumed the store had given her someone else’s tie....
View ArticleThe Birds and the Bees
By Richard E. Peck I grew up on a farm, where the facts of life are obvious. I helped load our prize boar into the back of the pickup for a visit to the latest bride in his growing harem — an arranged...
View ArticleWalking
By Richard E. Peck I walk mornings. At first, for reasons of health, more recently out of habit. But reasons aside, the fact is, it’s been educational in ways the joggers I share the dawn with can’t...
View ArticleThe Electronic Divide
By Richard E. Peck Follow me on this. My daughter just gave me an mp3. She’d already given me an iPod (or an iPad?) last Christmas. I stuck them both in the closet that holds my combination lazer-...
View ArticleLearning to Drive Aloha
By Richard E. Peck There’s a fine line between a normal, law-abiding life and the abrupt descent into the criminal underworld. For me, the plunge from respectability into the pit of outlawry happened...
View ArticleGrowing ‘Best of Show’ Daylilies
By Richard E. Peck Amaryllis for sale at a grocery store in Kapa‘a. Photo by Léo Azambuja We should have been suspicious when the daylily named Little Grapette was taller than any rose bush in our...
View ArticleFather’s Daze
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck Celebrating Mother’s Day is a piece of cake. Take Mom out to dinner. She gets to eat rubber chicken and gutta percha peas in a restaurant jammed with 312 strangers...
View ArticleMy Mainland Cousin
By Richard E. Peck Richard Peck We live on an island. Our Mainland friends and relatives misunderstand everything about that, starting with the time – as I learned when the phone rang at 04:00...
View ArticleRemember Your First Pizza?
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck It happened on a Sunday night in the USMC barracks at the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. Three other PFCs swung by my bunk to ask if I wanted to go with them “for...
View ArticleA Slight Heart Attack
By Richard E. Peck The results of my annual physical exam? A clean bill of health: low cholesterol level, low/normal blood pressure, low triglycerides (whatever they are), spotless X rays … all...
View ArticleWho’s Been Writing on My Shirt?
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck The tie my aunt gave me for high school graduation had writing on it. Halfway down one edge were two embroidered initials, “CM.” I assumed the store had given her...
View ArticleThe Birds and the Bees
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck I grew up on a farm, where the facts of life are obvious. I helped load our prize boar into the back of the pickup for a visit to the latest bride in his growing...
View ArticleWalking
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck I walk mornings. At first, for reasons of health, more recently out of habit. But reasons aside, the fact is, it’s been educational in ways the joggers I share the...
View ArticleThe Electronic Divide
By Richard E. Peck Richard E. Peck Follow me on this. My daughter just gave me an mp3. She’d already given me an iPod (or an iPad?) last Christmas. I stuck them both in the closet that holds my...
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