Snippets

You can catch a "Snippet" every so often when I'm inclined to share a micro-story, memoir, anecdote or opinion that reflects the everyday drama in the lives of regular people.

Best Wedding Night Ever

(This is the fourth in a memoir series; list below) The pre-marital bliss went on for a few months in Lee, New Hampshire, before David...

dawnellenronco

Mar 21

A Place on a Map

Note: This is the third memoir in a series. For full context, you might want to read Thank You, Padre Pio and Hole in the Floor, if you...

dawnellenronco

Apr 20, 2024

Hole In the Floor

If you read the first installment of this series (Thank You, Padre Pio), you know how I met my husband-to-be David, the secret of his Art...

dawnellenronco

Jan 28, 2024

Thank You, Padre Pio

In 1978, a gangly guy with a beard was seen around the hospital where I worked as a social worker. We were told he was the street worker...

dawnellenronco

Feb 19, 2023

Christmas 1964

Excuse me for dating myself. I know today’s wanna-be-grown-up little girls wish for cell phones, tattoos and plumped lips. But the...

dawnellenronco

Dec 20, 2022

No Money

My mother woke me with a phone call at 5:23 this morning, dialed from her room 700 miles away in Massachusetts. “Dawn, you’ve got to help...

dawnellenronco

Nov 3, 2022

How Marky Sparky Got His Name

Kids don’t come any cuter than my baby brother Mark, seven years my junior. He lit the world when he was born in 1963, raring to go. You...

dawnellenronco

Apr 25, 2022

As if ...

I never expected calamity in such a pastoral setting. Picture it: Clusters of nearly branchless, dead trees, reaching up out of the blue...

dawnellenronco

Mar 18, 2022

Unfinished Furniture

It would command no more than $75 in a yard sale, its condition Good at best. Anyway, no one wants old wooden desk with no keyboard tray...

dawnellenronco

Feb 19, 2022

Just Published!

Do you like a story where everyday characters struggle to resolve a moral dilemma? Check out my story, Crawl Space, which was just...

dawnellenronco

Jan 22, 2022

Pickled Eggs & Beer

That’s me, the jowly kid on the right, with my younger cousin. The picture was probably taken around Christmas, 1956, just before the...

dawnellenronco

Jan 11, 2022

I-540

Not to pick on I-540, because every public roadway has them — but I recently encountered all these types in the five-minute ride between...

dawnellenronco

Dec 9, 2021

Tape, Paper, Scissors

Many a mother can produce a Band-Aid, a measuring tape, ibuprofen or a pair of collapsible scissors from her pocketbook. As her...

dawnellenronco

Nov 27, 2021

The Clutch

While our parents drank martinis in the other room, my brother and I ate supper at a round, mahogany pedestal table that must have...

dawnellenronco

Oct 30, 2021

Pea Rugs

Growing up, my brothers and I hated peas. Especially those soft, yellowy ones with their skins coming off. Yuck. But even though it was...

dawnellenronco

Oct 30, 2021