Samples from the Sweet Things List
  • getting out of the warm bed to turn down the heat(which he assumed was his responsibility)and always saying with a grin as he climbed back into bed, “Here I am again.”

  • his pride in his grass: “The boys down at Village Lumber tell me it’s never looked better.”

  • after I’d chewed him out for shrinking some of my cotton shirts in the laundry, standing at the washing machine, pretending to read a label: “This one says, ‘Rub with fine sand, then pound on a rock.’ “

  • on my first day of student teaching, the apple he left on the kitchen table with “a note to the teacher.”

  • his superb navigation, always, but especially getting us into port at the Marquesas Islands, after 25 days at sea, within 15 minutes of his estimated arrival time

  • rolling out wonton skins, singing “Bringing in the Sheaves” in garbled Chinese