George W. Parker III

Click here to read story OBLIVION She said “I’m going to take a walk before dinner.” “Wait.” I spoke up. “I’ll go with you. Let me change my shoes first.” We walked along familiar streets in the neighborhood, she setting the pace and me struggling to keep up. The sun was getting low, but it […]

MY DAY – YESTERDAY Click here to read story It was Tuesday. Tuesday is egg day, as is Saturday, but let’s stick with Tuesday. Cari also plays doubles tennis on Tuesday mornings at Washington Park at 8:30. I had dressed in casual clothes, gone out and picked up the Chronicle, which I now call the […]

  GEORGE’S TALES OF THE WOODS In January , 2008 I was surfing the web looking for information on a sawmill named Pino Grande located some forty miles east of Auburn, California in the Sierra Nevada. To my delight I found a story by a John Barnhill telling about looking for old railroad bridges in […]

Click here to read story THE FLOOD OF ’55 Rain was predicted – heavy rain.  I wasn’t too concerned because, after all, having lived in Portland for five years, I had seen plenty of rain.  But this had been a steady rain for two days and now we were heading for the San Francisco Bay […]

APOLONIO Click here to read story I opened the letter, and read the words “one P please”. This is how Apolonio spelled his name, but I had faulted and given him an extra P. We didn’t correspond much; our acquaintance was mostly in person, and my fond memory of him persists to this day. Ap, […]

ORDER AND SYMMETRY Click here to read story It is morning. I’m sitting on a chair in my bedroom, getting dressed. It’s a straight-back wooden chair with a thinly cushioned seat. The light blue faded upholstery is worn at the left front corner. It may stay this way for a long time. At my left […]

I DON’T UNDERSTAND Click here to read story The other day I was driving down the street in my old Ford pick-up when I saw a crowd of people standing around a parked automobile. In my usual curious way, I had to stop and see what was going on. There, was parked, a sleek little […]

KENNETH BEER [WATCH THE BALL! His first advice to me, and one that he repeated many times over the years, was “watch the ball until it comes off your racquet. Don’t worry about where you are going to hit it.” This advice from Kenny Beer never became automatic in my game, but when followed, it […]

Would you like the city of Burlingame to collect a tax from her any time your sister comes to visit you from Seneca, Nea York? If she stays in a hotel she has to pay a tax. Why?