When you live on a horse farm in Miami you often try to find ways to cool off in the hot Florida sun. As kids, we would ride our ponies in the ring, bareback, with the sprinklers on full blast. We’d bathe our horses with the hose and “accidentally” get wet. Or we’d fill up water balloons and drop them from high places. As we got older, swimming in the local rock pit was fun and we’d even take a dog…..
Under the sea grape tree and within the safe distance of our home, lived a little wood- framed playhouse with charcoal shingles on the roof. I say “lived” because I believe it truly came to life and changed over the years with whatever it contained. It was tall enough for my 7 year old self to stand up in—and was built when I was around 5 years old. Three windows, a door and made of pine wood, it was a…..
I always thought I was named after my mom’s cocker spaniel, Robin, and I was very much okay with that. There may have been some truth to that because she had her before I came along. But actually, I was named after my dad, Robert, of which Robin is a diminutive name. And once I came to know my dad, that too was more than okay. Mom and Dad met in the early fifties at a stable in Coconut Grove, Florida. They…..