The name I heard on the radio talk show -- a touchy-feely program, during which the host once said we had to pay attention to "the way we language" and she clearly did not feel she had left a word out -- was Susie Prudden. I instantly had a vision of an exercise book, circa 1950s, with a woman in capri-length tights and tied-off top, doing all sorts of static poses. On the cover was a silhouette of a woman in what I would now call "boat" position, having taken a lot of yoga classes in the past year.

Bonnie, as it turns out, was Susie's mom, and is still alive at age 90. The name brought back the book and the wonderment of the odd objects that one associates with one's parents. I don't recall my mom ever doing Prudden's exercises. (She was quite slim.) But I remember looking at the book over and over again, as if it held some key to adult life.

Were there things, actual things, that you thought contained the secrets to being grown-up?