Grandma's Been There

I was fourteen years old the first time I saw Joni Mitchell. She was simplicity and intricacy, and she was beautiful. She was like no other artist I'd ever seen or heard before. Let me share some of my pictures of Joni with you.

John Kennedy entered the White House five months after I entered the first grade. When I saw that the new president was a young man with a daughter around my age, I knew things were looking up. But how much of what I saw was real and how much of it was an illusion?

This week, I want to tell you how much I enjoy Halloween in this new millennium. Before I do that though, I need to tell you what Halloween was like when I was a little girl because it was very different than it is now.

As a young kid, I was awkward, self-conscious and devoid of confidence. I was lucky to have the support of a friend who was a self-propelled leader. She was the locomotive and I was the caboose.

Here's the second half of "World Without End." If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, please go back and listen to that first.

October 16th marked the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This week's episode is a work of fiction based on actual events. "World Without End" is the story of a little girl who challenges the validity of 1960s Cold War propaganda by refusing to take cover during an air raid drill. I've divided it into two parts which I'm releasing simultaneously so you can listen to it all in one sitting or come back for the second half when your schedule permits.

I'm gonna miss the summer, but I'm ready for cooler air and a whole new color palette. I love all the seasons, but there's nothing like the look, the feel and the personality of the fall.

Let me tell you how Bernard Castro helped me sleep at night when I was a little girl even though we never owned one of his sofa beds.

In 1969, it was often easy for me to feel like Alice Pleasance Liddell trying to navigate Wonderland and the world of opposites on the other side of the looking glass while always on the lookout for the Queen of Hearts. Outside my door, there were lots of strange creatures, a little madness and some real danger.

If you should happen to notice any similarities in the themes of these two cautionary tales from the past, or if you find them relatable to things that are going on in the present day, well, that could be because history does have a tendency to repeat itself, especially when we're not paying attention.