IT STARTED WITH BOTTLES, old ones mixed with broken bits of wood and rusty metal and submerged in dirt on a slope behind our house in Westchester, New York. My parents bought the place in the mid-1960s, when I was 6. It was a weekend escape from Manhattan, where my father was already a physician and my mother was not yet a therapist. The home was a 19th-century saltbox-small, dark, and cozy, with a living room and a kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms above. As with many very old houses, the tenants who predated garbage collection had merely thrown their refuse out back. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea for my dad and me to take up digging around in all that, but weekend after weekend we were out there with shovels, liberating those bottles from the mess. Clear, bubbled glass imprinted with labels like "Citrate of Magnesium." The ones that had somehow survived intact came back inside with us and began to fill up a curious piece of Victorian furniture known as a whatnot, defined by Merriam-Webster as "a light, open set of shelves for bric-a-brac." To my mother, the resurrected bottles didn't even count as bric-a-brac. She tolerated the collection for our sake, but she was mystified by this elevation of junk.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2024-Ausgabe von Real Simple.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2024-Ausgabe von Real Simple.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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CHOW TIME
Make sure your dog is getting all the nutrition she needs.
A RUNNING START
Your dream jogging buddy has four legs and a fur coat, and she's ready to go.
BASIC TRAINING
Be consistent. Make it fun. And bring lots of treats.
HOME ALONE
A training pro offers advice to prep your pet for solo time.
SAVING MONEY ON DOG EXPENSES
Your pup can run up the bills, but we're here to help with some wallet-friendly tips and tricks.
THE RIGHT STUFF
Calling all puppy parents: Have you consulted our vet-approved checklist for all things dog?
THINGS PEOPLE DO THAT DOGS CAN'T STAND
Do you hug her? Dress her up? Rush through her walks? You may be getting on your pet's nerves.
NO GOING BACK
How a big, needy foster dog (who was afraid of everything) gained confidence, won over his new family, and inspired this touching, pandemic-era essay.
A POSITIVE BOND BETWEEN YOUR PUP AND YOUR KIDS
Start the work before your first meet-and-greet.
THE PERFECT COMPANION
Energizer bunny? Couch potato? Furry? Smooth? The pup that fits you.