C a r o l y n D a u g h t e r s

Friday, 7 pm, downtown Sacramento. LuAnne gets a new necklace that suits her just fine. This jewelry-related information has nothing to do with Vacaville or anything else documented in this entry. Please forget you even read these introductory sentences. Thank you.

Sunday, 2 pm, Sacramento Executive Airport. Susan and Carolyn board a tiny plane piloted by necklace enthusiast LuAnne Sloan. Susan is the unofficial copilot, as she is the only one onboard with a sense of direction. Carolyn has the backseat to herself. She couldn’t be more thrilled.

Sunday, 3 pm, Vacaville. LuAnne lands in Vacaville. “Vaca” means “cow” in Spanish, so … Continue Reading

Little girls have approximately 842 dolls, and the younger the girls, the greater the chances that all 842 dolls share the same name. And that name? Well, it’s often the name of a playground or preschool pal, a gal who’s usually whipsmart, a budding socialite, and a snappy dresser to boot.

When I was super small, I thought Susie and her frilly dresses were the epitome of cool, which probably comes as no surprise since I wore a moth-eaten cable-knit sweater when I wasn’t wearing my trademark lawn-green zip-up pantsuit. All my dolls were called Susie.

Here in Sacramento, my friend LuAnne … Continue Reading

Raymond Carver (1938-1988)

I’ve been thinking of Raymond Carver quite a bit of late. I was writing about him to a friend just the other day, then I got to Sacramento a few days back and learned that he lived in Sac during the mid-60′s.

Back in the 60′s, Carver worked as a night custodian at Mercy Hospital and sat in on classes at Sacramento State. Many of his early stories and poems are set in identifiable Sacramento sites, and CSU-Sac published his first book of poems.

Carver built a … Continue Reading