Peas went with carrots as infallibly as ham went with eggs. For years I thought carrots and peas grew on the same vine.

One of the loveliest things about being grown up is the knowledge that never again will I have to go through the miserable business of performing in Mrs. Smedley's Annual Piano Recital at McKinleyville's First Presbyterian Church.

... I've never found anything whatsoever that is as easy to do the right way as the wrong way, and if there is such a thing I would like to know about it.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.

Kitchens were different then, too - not only what came out of them, but their smells and sounds. A hot pie cooling smells different from a frozen pie thawing.

There was something immensely comforting, I found, about a crumpet - so comforting that I've never forgotten about them and have even learned to make them myself against those times when I have no other source of supply.

But let me say this about learning experiences: they're weird. Or put it this way: what you learn from a learning experience is generally something else.