Julia Sneden
Julia Sneden was a writer, friend, wife, mother, Grandmother, care-giver and Senior Women Web's Resident Observer. Her career included editorial work for Sunset Magazine, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios as well as teaching. Julia was a passionate opponent of this country’s educational system, which she felt was floundering. She will be greatly missed as the heart of this website and this editor's friend of fifty years.
Julia Sneden's archive of articles.
Pursuit of the Perfect Purse
Of course it would also be nice if it came with some sort of niche for a small flashlight, because I am forever squinting down into lint-filled depths, looking for little items that have a way of hiding themselves. It would also need to be sturdy, because I have a bad habit of hastily flinging my purse into the backseat or onto the closet shelf, and have even been known to swing it angrily against the wall when the key to my front door jams and sticks in the lock yet again. more »
CultureWatch
Those of us who became fans of Lorrie Moore’s when we first read her short stories in The New Yorker will welcome the publication of her new novel, the first in over a dozen years. Ms. Moore, who couples her career as novelist/short story writer extraordinaire with a professorship at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, may take her own sweet time between novels, but what she has produced is worth our wait. more »
On Losing a Sib
But the remarkable thing about siblings is that no matter how tangential the relationship, there is always a core memory of shared childhood. It is indestructible. If you’re lucky, that core is made of love and respect. Ours was, even when we didn’t agree on things. And boy, did we disagree on things. There really wasn’t much chance for sibling rivalry in our household, because we were just so different from each other. more »
History by the Thimbleful
Managing to clothe eight children on a clergyman’s tiny salary must have been quite a feat. Mind you, this was in the days when mothers had to: (a) draw water from a creek or, if they were lucky, from a well; (b) cook on a wood stove, and keep the fire burning because it also heated the lower floor of the house; (c) wash clothes, including diapers, by hand; (d) wash and dry dishes for ten people and often more, by hand; (e) iron with a sod iron that was heated by setting it on the top of the stove, no thermostatic controls; (f) teach the younger children to read and write and cipher, when her husband was assigned to a remote posting where there were no schools; and (g) make or remake clothing for all members of the family. more »