A short history of my strange and motley bouts with education I entered the venerable halls of Clegern Elementary loaded for bear. Armed with the preternatural ability to read, a natural-born gift of discernment, and an inordinate amount of self-confidence for a six-year-old, I was prepared to take on all…
Browsing CategoryMemoir
The Tao Of Boob
A tale of my friend Bob and his spiritual influence on my life.
Bear With Me, I Want To Tell You Something
A poem, a plunger, and my epic struggle to reconnect with our youngest child after the ravages of addiction.
Breaker, Breaker One-Nine
Before the internet, there was the Citizens Band Radio, allowing us to call out into the abyss, hoping for a reply Originally published July, 2023 “Breaker, breaker, one-nine,” I called into the receiver. I sat in the dormer window of my third-floor bedroom and listened to the silence, occasionally broken…
The Crick Be Damned
Fifty-two is not that old really, even though I am now decidedly middle-aged, but since we raised our kids when I was especially young, it’s hard for me to imagine raising a child today. If I had a deficit of patience back then, which I most certainly did, I have…
Looking For bears
“We’re going to the dump,” Jane announced. I was lying on the sofa of a cabin in the Adirondacks. We were on vacation and I had purposely traveled thousands of miles away from home just so I wouldn’t have to do anything remotely like work. This sounded like work. I…
I’m Not From Here
Originally published in New Jersey Monthly Along the shores of Tuscany grow wild, salty shrubs that sailors, long ago, claimed to be able to smell long before they could actually see land. It was this distant scent that alerted them that home was near. Although I have never spent time at…
Chickens In The Brothel
To be honest, I’d never really given chickens a lot of thought. I like to eat them – I like an omelet now and again, but that’s about it.
To Bellplain With Bob
We’d been hearing for several days about the snowstorm. They made it sound like it was going to be quite a doozy. Of course, if it’s going to be more than a few inches in our neck of the woods, they start calling it a blizzard. It comes complete with…