Author: Life Without Lesson Plans

My husband Richard Coote first met John McDowell when they were students at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Before graduating, both left college during the Viet Nam War and joined the military. Richard and John both made it back to college after completing their military service, and they are friends to this day. John eventually wrote… Continue reading No Guns on Sunday →

PART 1 In 1972, my husband Bill and I and our friend John Hennen pooled our meager resources, and with the help of numerous friends and family members, we opened the Brooke Hills Playhouse as a summer stock theater in a pre-Civil War apple barn in Brooke Hills Park just outside of Wellsburg, West Virginia.… Continue reading Close Encounters of the Nice Kind →

I have this little part-time job which keeps me off the streets and out of pool halls. I write for Life in Chenal, a local magazine with a circulation of 6,000 in our large subdivision. Each month I have a column called “Snapshot” which tells a local resident’s story. I interview the person, take some… Continue reading Outsmarting the Smarties →

On a trip to Florida in 2017, my husband Richard and I were invited to sit at a table with two strangers at a crowded Denny’s in St. Augustine.  One of the women, a C.P.A., a U.S. veteran, AND a commercial pilot, had recently received her U.S. citizenship after 18 years of patiently waiting out… Continue reading TAKE A FORM, FILL IT OUT, GET IN LINE, REPEAT →

My dad, who was always athletic and even was named “The Wellest Man in Wellsburg over the Age of Seventy” back in the 1990s, tried to get me to go golfing with him for years.  He hadn’t started to golf until he was about to retire from the electric company, and he regretted not taking… Continue reading GOLF: Supposedly NOT a Contact Sport →

I recently interviewed Beth Mason, one of my golfing friends, for the “Snapshot” column I write each month for Life in Chenal magazine, and boy did I get a shock!  I’ve interviewed many of my other friends as well, and I always learn so much about them that I never knew.  One of my friends… Continue reading Beth Mason, Super Saleswoman and Super Survivor →

I've been writing articles for a local magazine since January 2016. My monthly column is called "Snapshot," and I write about someone who lives in or has ties to our large subdivision.  I often write a feature on a local business, and this year I've also written about a local chef each month. From April… Continue reading Not Exactly “Dear Abby” →

For the past three+ years I have been writing for Life in Chenal, a monthly magazine with a circulation of over 6,000 copies, which is distributed to all of the homes in our subdivision and hundreds of local businesses. One of my columns, titled “Snapshot,” is always about a Chenal resident. A little over two… Continue reading Hidden No Longer! →

Seeing George W. Bush slip Michelle Obama what appeared to be a piece of candy at John McCain’s funeral recently reminded me of something that happened to me and some college mates in 1967.  That fall, over the Veterans’ Day weekend, my college theatre sponsored a bus trip to New York City.  I had managed… Continue reading Of Candy and Culture →

Sometimes we think that crazy only happens to us.  Ha!  My friend Denise woke up one February morning, and eventually wished she’d never gotten out of bed.  But she did get up, feeling only so-so.  The night before she’d spent time with her husband in their new hot tub, even though the snow was flying. … Continue reading Denise’s No-Good, Really Dreadful, Some-Kind-of-Awful Morning →