What’s Going On – Mary Simses

Spicing up the Dinner Conversation

The other night my husband and I were at a dinner party. It was a small gathering – just the host, whose wife was out of town, a couple who we know, and another couple we’d never met before. We all chatted over drinks and then sat down to eat. At some point during dinner, the woman to my right, who I know well, suggested we go around the table and talk about what we’re doing this summer. A couple of people talked about their travel plans, which sounded lovely, and then it was my turn. Something came over me at the last second and this is what I came out with: “I’m going to be spending the summer in jail because I robbed an A&P supermarket

May 22, 2025

You Can’t Go Home Again

The author Thomas Wolfe said it many years ago and it’s still true. On this street in Greenwich, Connecticut, between the gray house on the left (peeking out from behind the trees) and the white house on the right is an empty piece of land. There used to be a little house there and when I was very young – from birth to age six – I lived in that house.

I don’t remember a lot about it, except for a general sense of where the rooms were and a few details about the kitchen, which was large compared to the rest of the house, had flowered wallpaper, and had windows that faced the back yard. I also remember a glassed-in porch and the color of the outside, which was red. There was a stone wall in the back yard that I think my father might have built. He was very handy. A weeping willow hung over the wall and I used to grab the branches and swing on them. My dad rigged up a tire swing by

August 2, 2022