Trish Reske's StoryLines Blog

Published in baystateparent Magazine Spring has barely sprung, and already the brochures have begun piling up in my mailbox: baseball summer camp, Cub Scout camp, phonics camp, soccer camp, camp for the gifted, camp for the musically inclined, camp for kids who don’t like camp… and the list goes on and on. Even my son’s preschool offers a summer program, for tots with unproductive time on their chubby little hands. Sure to follow on the heels of the glossy mailings will be ..read more

Last Monday, the 116th Boston Marathon went down in history as one of the hottest Boston Marathons on record, with temperatures soaring into the upper 80s. The scorching sun slowed down nearly all the runners on the course. It forced some to the sidelines without finishing, and prompted others to opt out of this year’s race altogether. This was not the case for 71-year-old Dick Hoyt and his 50-year-old son Rick, whom Dick pushed for 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston ..read more

My in-laws are from the old country. They grew up in Germany during World War II on a working farm, in conditions that make our tough economic times look like Mardi Gras. Ellie and Arnold are faithful to their Spartan Lutheran childhood values of spending as little money as possible and never throwing anything away, God forbid. They perfected the art of sustainable living long before it was chic. When they came out to Massachusetts to visit my husband Dave and I for the first time ..read more

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You! When Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote this saying in the children’s book, Happy Birthday to You! in 1959, he couldn’t have imagined that 53 years later, thousands of people using the social media tool Twitter would “tweet” this “Seussism” — along with many others— on the anniversary of his birthday. Many people paid the prolific tri-syllabic master of prose personal tributes ..read more

Donald Trump, move over.  I have truly perfected the Art of the Deal. While my deals may not be in the mega-millions, they’re big in my eyes. Take my bean deal, for example. A few years ago, Stop and Shop was promoting a $1.00 per item refund on selected Rienzi brand foods, including canned beans. The best part? The beans were on sale for 99 cents. Late that night, I hightailed it to the bean aisle and emptied the shelves of ..read more

Apparently so, according to Travel + Leisure magazine readers, who voted Boston the fifth rudest city in the U.S., behind Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Miami, and the King of Curmudgeons, New York City. Whatever. Actually, the attention-grabbing headline, “America’s Rudest Cities” is really a twisting of the survey results, which asked readers to rate which city had the friendliest people. Boston was ranked fifth from the bottom. I guess “nice people” doesn’t sell subscriptions as well as “insolent louts.” It’s also interesting to ..read more