The Rockwood Files

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Sometimes, I get angry emails. It doesn’t happen often, which is good because I don’t try to inspire irritation. But when you write for the public […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 My older brother was one of those guys — a fireworks guy. Do you know one? A guy who loves fireworks so much that the 4th […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Being a professional writer has a few perks, like knowing when “i” comes before “e” and eavesdropping on strangers’ conversations in the name of “research.” But […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 One of my dad’s favorite television shows was Sanford & Son, which aired through most of the 1970s. I was a little kid then, but what […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 As a new parent, everyone braces you for how challenging the newborn phase will be. They make jokes about sleeping while you can because once the […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 A few weeks ago, we had this short but wonderful pocket of time right before our oldest son’s college graduation. For four days, we had all […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 The children are afraid. Terrified, in fact. But you’d never know it by looking at them because they’re too scared to move a muscle, especially the […]

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 A year ago, a tornado hop-scotched through our town. It was past midnight, and I was watching a movie at home with our teenagers. When our […]