Category Memoir

Verdi Cries *

Tropical beach with waves, golden sunset, and grassy shoreline

“With just three days more I’d have just about learned the entire score to Aida.” This song has always touched me deeply. There are a lot of theories about the meanings and intent behind it, though supposedly in a BBC…

The Motor Route

Car driving on a winding road at night under a starry sky

It was one of my summer hustle jobs. Through all the problems I went through as a young man, especially in college, no one ever had to tell me to hustle for a living. I got the work ethic from…

Three Things From My Childhood

Wooden desk with open laptop, books, lamp, drink, and writing materials in cozy study

A story about how things matter. Photographs can help you remember things, but objects make you feel things. The connection is not obvious as in a photo. You have to work a little bit to remember the significance and conjure…

On Being Cold In The Woods

It’s a feeling I know very well. It’s not a bad feeling if you know home is not far and your directions are sure. You can put up with the cold because comfort is waiting and you are sure of…

The Marine Theater

The ushers hustled everyone to their seats. They wore the Jones Beach State Park uniform.  Blue and white.  There were seahorse emblems on their hats and epaulets. Limousines were parked in their special lot while VIP guests ate 5 star…

The Flag

“Kessler does not raise flags.  Kessler burns flags!!!!!”  And so that was that.  There would be no flag-raising today, and the flag pole stood unadorned all day.  No one batted an eyelash.  Such was life at Camp Da-Ro, a summer…

Iowa

If you know me, you’ve heard my story of being everywhere but home when I was growing up. Military Schools, full time sleep-away kid-sitters, summer camps. It was a weird blend of disadvantaged and privileged running side by side. The…

Untouchable Grief

She was different and that always attracted me. Compared to the other conservative, mostly cute girls at this small midwestern university, she was more aloof, dressed in a more sophisticated way, and carried herself with a sort of slow moving…

Road Trips In The Dark

Between 10 and 4. That’s my favorite time to be behind the wheel. At 10pm the world is shutting down. At 4am it’s beginning to stir again. In between, I have the world to myself. It’s never about wandering, that’s…

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