Sonya Zalubowski
Sonya Zalubowski is a journalist whose work took her all over the globe. Her specialty was Eastern Europe. As a correspondent first for the Miami Herald and later the Chicago Sun-Times Field news service and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, she had a front seat at history. Sonya's reporting covered the spectrum, from the rise of Solidarity in Poland to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After returning to the Pacific Northwest and family, she worked for Newsweek magazine and The Oregonian newspaper. She has studied fiction writing with author Tom Spanbauer's Dangerous Writers and has published several short stories, including in the Alimentum food journal, VoiceCatcher and BellaOnline.
Sonya's latest direction is a return to travel and travel writing and her blog can be read at seniortravelswithsaz.blogspot.com
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By Sonya Zalubowski*. The red dust of Tanzania's iron-rich soil still clings to my athletic shoes. I've been loathe to clean them, wanting in this small fashion ...
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A Christmas Eve Surprise: A Stack of Love Letters
Sonya Zalubowski writes: A little gold ribbon each side, the hinges I remembered. More gold squiggles printed on the cover inside, the regal stamp of British royalty, two lions flanking a crown."By appointment. Yardley London." Not even a faint smell of lavender anymore. Something much better. Those envelopes. I took the top one out, addressed to Miss Helen Romer in Seattle, Washington. The postmark Kenosha, Wisconsin. The postage just three cents. The date Sept 8, 1939. Now, as an adult, I realized what they represented, love letters from Dad to Mom at the start of their relationship. more »
The Earlier Wave of Immigration, Washington Park Tavern, One-Armed Wally and the Chocolate Bars
Sonya Zalubowski writes: We now have the largest immigration since the waves that brought my own family here back in the early 1900s. Talk now here and all over Europe roils about what to do about these huge movements of people. I found reassurance in thinking about my own family and how they lived and worked after coming here in the early 1900s. I share with you this little vignette I wrote in the voice of a ten-year-old in my memoir about growing up in the 1950s in Kenosha, Wisconisn, the grandchild of immigrants from Poland who through their hard work carved out their new lives in this country. more »
They Said She’d Only Need Five or Six Outfits: "I'll Go in Style"
Sonya Zalubowski writes: Summertime and of course Mom had to have all her pull-on capri pants, the new white ones she liked so well. And her favorite long pants, the faded nubby blue and white polyester checked ones, her first pair of trousers from the 60s, her index finger wagging 'women's lib' at Dad back then. And all the matching tee shirts and blouses, the maroon and white checked one I'd picked out for Mother's Day. The piles of clothing draped over my arms, so high I could just see over them, I made my way from my packed car at the entrance of the nursing home. more »
Martha's Vineyard, a Seafood Heaven, 'Sea to Table'
Sonya Zalubowski writes: Seafood, seafood, seafood. As if you'd need another reason to want to visit Martha's Vineyard, the small, picturesque island off Massachusetts' Cape Cod. It is nearly inundated by tourists come summer with a population that swells by more than six times to over 100,000. I had the good fortune to visit in mid-May, right before the crowds, to tour the awakening island with chef Christopher Gianfreda who had returned for his seventh season of cooking here. more »
