Paula Cushman
Bio
I am a former news editor and currently a freelance writer/blogger. I live on a small farm along the coast of the Monterey Bay. I am a grandmother and a great grandmother.
Stories (12/0)
My Mother the Mall Queen
Once a week we spend the day together running her errands, we do all those things she needs to do, and during these outings I learn new things about my mother that I didn't know. I feel like its a re-bonding. My daughter and I make sure she never has to worry about anything. Before my father passed the one thing I promised him was that my mom would be well taken care of. I never broke that promise to him.
By Paula Cushman8 months ago in Families
Cabbage Patch Rumble
I just love this time of year. I enjoy watching my grandchildren get all excited about Santa coming to visit. The aroma of tamales steaming in my mother's kitchen embraces me when I enter her house. It brings back memories of my childhood. I look back at those memories as being some of the best years of my life as a child growing up. It was all about being with my family and knowing how much everyone loved you and a simple hug meant more to me than any gift.
By Paula Cushmanabout a year ago in Families
Donkey & Pig Show
Country life, farm living is the life for me. I can sometimes be a hermit, but I think most country folk can be as we tend to enjoy the peaceful surroundings of home. I have always felt that raising my children in Arroyo Seco was one of the best choices I made for them. I was that single working mom raising a family of four, and it had its moments, hurdles. Had it not been for me to find something to laugh about in the hardest of times, I never would have made it to where I am today. It shaped me into the woman and writer I have become.
By Paula Cushmanabout a year ago in Petlife
A Christmas Story
The holidays are that time of year that we can all agree can be tough on those of us who have either struggled with the loss of loved ones or just trying to survive day by day. Between the pandemic, and prices from gas to groceries being more expensive it gets a little more stressful.
By Paula Cushmanabout a year ago in Families
Billy the Rooster
It's a love story that I want to share. It's too sweet to not be told. He is suave, cool, and a real Romeo and I can see why the chicks love him. By his strut, I can tell he knows it. I watch him while he's watching me. We have that eye contact thing going on. Every now and then he gives me that one-eyed side look as he pumps out his chest. That look that all chicks just love.
By Paula Cushmanabout a year ago in Petlife
Let's go Stumbling
I had grace, I had balance, like a gazelle I could run across a four-lane highway in high heels .... but now .. I can't even make it across the barnyard without an accident. I have stumbled, slipped, slid and slammed myself into the ground. Judging by my bruises I have beat myself up real good. I show myself no mercy.
By Paula Cushmanabout a year ago in Petlife
The Chicken Knock
While raising my family out in the country chickens were a part of our unique little farm life and their purpose was to provide eggs for my family, and those hens did their job well. Those layers supplied my family, parents, and friends with farm-fresh eggs. They had free roam and we cooped them up only at night. My two youngest boys would find stashes of eggs all over. They would come running up to the house with more than a dozen eggs collected in their tee shirts. Everyone who visited would go home with at least a dozen eggs.
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Families
Moola
Country living it's what I love. I raised my family in Arroyo Seco, and now I'm enjoying life out here in Elkhorn along the coast of the Monterey Bay. I'm tucked right in the middle of ten minutes from the beach and ten minutes from our local shopping center. Life couldn't be any better than that. Unless you have to walk that country Blvd at 7 am in pink rubber boots while carrying a bucket of grain to fetch two cows who are out on the road, two cows from a herd, you told your neighbor, "yes, I can feed them for two days while you are out of town."
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Petlife
My Mother's Daughter
My mother. A small frail little lady who sat peacefully in her recliner with a blanket draped across her lap,with a book in her hands. It was a week of reflection for me, we had recently learned that her stomach cancer had returned. The last few days were a bit quiet at home as I would check on her like a mother with a newborn. Our roles in life had changed when I became her fulltime caretaker.
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Families
The Year of El Diablo
Some stories need to be told. They become legendary and passed from generation to generation. It's how we learn about our ancestors, our family before us, and we pass those stories to our children and grandchildren, and these stories get told to the generations after them. Growing up, I had uncles with nicknames like Killer Quintero and Big Al from Alisal. Even I was blessed with a handle, Paula Mae, for my Ellie Mae Clampett ways.
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Families
Dusty Trails
As a writer, I often get asked to retell a story because it's a favorite of someone. It's nice knowing that what I wrote could become that one that someone would remember me for in the years to come. Many good stories start with "remember when" or "remember the time." I had good subjects to write about; they were easy prey, I could count on them, they never failed me. My children, like circus clowns, were the victims of some classics; I'm a Blind Date Magnet, The Fight Between the Donkey & the Pig, A Horse in the House, Who Ate My Pizza, and My Ass Is Going Down the Road. I have my favorites too. What would usually be Big Week here in our neck of the woods, I noticed son Monroe had rodeo withdraws with the pandemic shutting everything down. It reminded me of the time of a young cowboy who made the trip of a lifetime on the back of a horse.
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Confessions
- Top Story - March 2022
Blind Date MagnateTop Story - March 2022
Dating over 60. At this age, it seems like it takes a lot of work. You look at things differently when you are older. We are a little more set in our ways and unwilling to give up that space to just anyone. At least for me, it is. Dating as a single mom of four was a challenge. My children were a little rough on the guys I dated. I'm not sure how far down the road some of my dates got when they figured out one or two tires were a bit low, but it wasn't hard for me to figure out how it happened. Four "it wasn't me" answers are how I figured we had a ghost kid who got the blame for everything that mysteriously happened. There were the guys who would call, and my daughter would answer and tell them I was busy, "my mom's not available right now, she's raising her kids; call back," she looks over at my youngest son, "in about ten years."
By Paula Cushman2 years ago in Confessions