by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 30, 2016 | Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, New Smyrna Beach FL
The smallest bridge in New Smyrna Beach, rising less than six feet from Washington Street, might as well have been the Sunshine Skyway over Tampa Bay. My shoulders bunched with tension and my knuckles whitened on the stick shift as I eyed the first “hill” in my... by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 23, 2016 | Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, New Smyrna Beach FL
R.J. and I stared at the wreckage of our family’s holiday cheer. Between us lay a flapped open cardboard box labeled Christmas Decorations. Mom poked her head into my bedroom. “I’m sorry, kids, but we can only afford one gift for each of you this year. And money is... by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 16, 2016 | Blog, Hendersonville NC, Just The Facts Fridays, Our Lady of the Hills Camp
After pulling the overnight waitress shift at a Daytona Beach HoJo’s for a month—just me and a big black ex-con flipping burgers—camp never sounded better. But I hadn’t counted on a different kind of danger driving into Our Lady of the Hills in 1977 in the back of... by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 9, 2016 | Blog, Just The Facts Fridays, Our Lady of the Hills Camp
….Was Sipping Cider Through a Straw.” I eyeballed the other counselors circling the Canteen, my knee bouncing with first evening jitters. My gaze slapped into Mike Smith the same second his T-boned into me. A high school chemistry experiment combusted... by Ann Lee Miller | Dec 2, 2016 | Blog, Hendersonville NC, Just The Facts Fridays
The Florida to North Carolina trek took sixteen hours—one for each year I’d been alive—or long enough to read Go Ask Alice, Love Story, and a Mad Magazine cover to cover. I packed my K-Mart steamer trunk with enough T-shirts, shampoo, and books for a summer at Our...