Linda Ruscio
Stories (2)
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Aging Better Than Fine Wine
50 Years Ago…. As Maggie walked to school, she pondered the pros and cons of pleading to stay home with her imaginary illness. Friday was always difficult; it was the afternoon of the dreaded multiplication tables quiz. Mrs. Lockhart would quickly call out, “5 times 9, 8 times 4, 7 times 12” and you would have to, just as quickly, write the answer or remember to skip a line so the rest of the test was not all wrong. Maggie was pretty good, but Arthur sat next to her and he would be a basket case all day. By the 5th or 6th problem he would start to sniffle, silent tears would turn into louder sobs, and he would shuffle his feet under his desk. Mrs. Lockhart steadily ignored him and it drove Maggie crazy that she would be that mean!
By Linda Ruscio5 years ago in Humans
Turning the Page on Winter
I love Winter, particularly in my home state of Massachusetts. Winter gives us permission to stay home, to hibernate, to read every book on the nightstand, to binge-watch Netflix. I feel stylish because I wear leggings now, not sweatpants. Covid-19 has added its weighty presence to Winter and has had us doubling down on the premise that there is no place like home. We have comforted ourselves with new home-centric hobbies, like learning how to bake sourdough bread (not as easy as you may think) and by banishing canned soup from the pantry. There is therapeutic value to using your wooden spoon to stir the latest batch of butternut squash soup, to feel righteous about the nutritional value and to savor the new skill. There is an abundance of knitting/crochet projects across the country right now; perhaps they will be pulled out again next year and an army of sofa throws will eventually be used while reading the next batch of books and watching next year’s must-watch series. Conceived during the difficulties of Covid-19, we will begin to view these acquired skills and goods as Badges of Honor, representing our survival.
By Linda Ruscio5 years ago in Motivation
