Allen Point IV: Casting the Last Stone
There were a lot of kids up at the bus stop, but the only one who really mattered was Tom. I first met Tom the second summer after we moved into Allen Point. He and Bruce were throwing stones into the lagoon. Throwing stones was something that I did a lot of at Allen Point. I had [...]

Allen Point III: One for the Roads
When we first moved to the Point, we had one car. That usually meant that I had to walk when I wanted to go anywhere. The main drive went out the north end of the Point, past the orchard and the drive to Mrs. Basden. Then it crossed the spit at Shell Beach and headed east [...]

Chronicles of Allen Point II: The Drowning Deer
I know it was fall. A few leaves hung like wet bats on the rare Japanese Maple that framed the northern edge of our view of the bay. Further to the right, a bed of overgrown Rhododendrons, Camillias, and a Blue Spruce masked the path to Mrs. Basden’s out the kitchen Dutch Door. The southern [...]

Christopher Robin and Allen Point: Counting Down the Sun
Mrs. Yates was a formidable woman. Agnes May Allen Yates, our landlord,  cane in one hand, and a continuously lit cigarette in the other, ruled over the middle section of her father’s domain. She lived in the apartment above the unpretentious cream and green-trim garage behind our little Kelly Green house in the center of Allen [...]

Picking Your Poison.
As some of you have probably figured out, I enjoy a drink. Whether it’s a pint, a glass, a shot, snifter, or “just a wee dram,” I haven’t met an alcohol I didn’t like. Except for an “Amaro di Tartufo” (Truffle Liquor) that I tried in Noricia (northern Italy). I had been seeing signs for [...]