Category Archives: Childhood

The Cat’s in the Cradle

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

I walk past my oldest antique, a cradle that my grandmother, Edna Cartwright Davis, born in the late 1800s, slept in as an infant. When she grew out of it, someone carried it upstairs into an attic where it remained … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal friends, Bovina Center, NY, Stories, Change, Childhood, Family, Friendship, Grace, Quilts | 5 Comments

Ordinary Grace

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

This afternoon I read Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, a book that took me to a small town, New Bremen, Minnesota in 1961, where complex tragedy strikes a small family and ripples through the community in astonishing ways. Krueger … Continue reading →

Posted in A Wonderful Book, Book Reviews, Childhood, Community, Compassion, Courage, Family, Grace, Kindness, Mystery, Peacefulness | 3 Comments

A Childhood Vacation

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

The first vacation my childhood family ever had taken was approaching and we were all so excited. My mother and her lifelong best friend, Geneva, had planned it. Geneva’s three kids were Kathy, about my age, 14ish; Eric, close to … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Family, Mother Nature, Simplicity | 8 Comments

God’s Eye

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

More than four decades ago, my second-grade son, Keith, brought home a God’s Eye he’d crafted in school shortly before Christmas. At the time I’d never heard of a God’s Eye and asked him to tell me about it. “My … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Family, Gifts, Mystery | 1 Comment

An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer’s Story

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

“In 1965, when I was eighteen, I ran away to Portland, Oregon. Running away was an act of rebellion, but also of faith. In one beautiful leap I would escape my family, my past, and the insufferable person I’d been … Continue reading →

Posted in A Wonderful Book, Book Reviews, Childhood, Courage, Gifts, The Writing Life | Leave a comment

A Mystical Birth Day Gift

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

In the early morning hours of my recent birth day, I woke embraced in total darkness and thought of my mother exactly 74 years earlier. I knew her labor was prolonged and so I knew now, at 3am, she and … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Family, Gifts, Gratitude, Mystery, Peacefulness | 4 Comments

My 1950 Toni Home Perm

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

I was eight years old in 1950 and Toni Home permanents were all the rage. Many of my third grade classmates were appearing in school looking so pretty with their curls. Now my Mom had just purchased a Toni home … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Family, In the Kitchen | 3 Comments

Carol’s Coats

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

Carol Tyree. We worked together for over a decade. We retired together on the last work day of 2011. She was more deeply devoted to her family and her church than anyone I had known. And we shared several seasons … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Compassion, Friendship, Gifts, Gratitude, Kindness, Knitting, Poverty | 2 Comments

When Mental Illness Touches Your Life…

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

“This is,” the author says, “the story of a family that was close and then came apart.” Nothing Like Normal: Surviving a Sibling’s Schizophrenia by Martha Graham-Waldon poses this question on the cover: What if you woke up one day … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Childhood, Family, Health, Mental Illness, Mystery | 2 Comments

Simplicity and Love: Homemade Gifts

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

I’m slipping back, for a moment, three decades to when we lived on our Catskill dairy farm. When my children were small, we made all our gifts by hand, creating remarkable memories and tangibles that I treasure to this day. … Continue reading →