Tag: memoir
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Memoir: Worst job (1982)
“Hello, Mrs. Jones? This is George from United Auto Warranty. I see that your ‘79 Ford’s warranty is about to expire this November, and I’m calling to tell you that we can lock-in a better warranty today extending coverage two whole years, and you’ll actually pay less for more coverage. Can I take just a…
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Memoir: Back to School (2023)
Ah, those two weeks in late July or early August, mesmerized by steady waves on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan, the soft cry of hovering gulls, clouds gently morphing and moving across blue skies by sweet summer winds. Precious downtime. Time for me and my family to just be. And then, “When do you…
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Memoir: Lessons learned about delivering lessons (1986-88)
Yesterday I conversed with a young teacher at the start of her first year teaching high school French, something I did many years ago, before I switched to just English. She asked, “What have you learned about how to teach adolescents? Any insights, or ‘lessons learned?’” I shook my head and told her how embarrassed…
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Memoir: What’s in my closet, part 2 (2023)
These shirts and other swag were a pathetically big part of my payment for several years. And in retrospect they were a long time coming.
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Memoir: Early memories of dad (1966-67)
Sports were one place dad felt comfortable interacting with me. Otherwise he acted as men who came of age in the 1940s and 50s did: strong, silent, and cool. Except when it came to sports. In the presence of an athletic contest, dad re-animated. Watching a game on our black and white TV, he’d explosively…
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Memoir: Encountering NASCAR (1972)
One day when I was 11, dad asked me, “How would you like to fly to Alabama to see the Talladega 500?” He may as well have asked if I wanted to dance the tarantella on Venus. The question made no sense. I craved dad’s company so much that I readily agreed. Dad ran an…
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Memoir: an incomplete healing (1974)
Dorothy Thompson, the “First Lady of American Journalism,” wrote that “peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict–alternatives to…violence.” In other words, at war’s end, enmity between factions is never eliminated, but instead transformed into “peaceful” guises. In my experience, just as conflict persists after an…
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Memoir: my sister Sheila
My sister Sheila had a magical connection with the family Cairn Terrier. Sheila would bang out Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” on the baby grand as Marilyn, the dog, sat on her haunches underneath and howled, much to my delight. It seemed Sheila and Marilyn communicated on an intense separate wavelength, unheard…
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Memoir: the weaving of a dream 1976
It’s a Friday night in March, and Phil, Glen, Billy and I, all sophisticated 8th graders, quietly climb a ladder into the cramped space under the rafters in Billy’s garage. We bring with us a 12 pack of beer and a transistor radio. The little attic is dark and smells of roof tar and sawdust.…
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Memoir: the education of a toxic male, 1966-72
I met Kevin when my family moved into the south Oak Park home across the alley from his family, I was five, and he a year younger, and over the next six years or so we were constant playmates outside of school. A clever kid, Kevin was a natural athlete, who spurred my growth as…
The Wikiness 