The 1960’s
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Striking a Chord
The first intimations we got of the atmosphere in beer joints and nightclubs came around make-do dance floors at school. One night in the basketball gym, at a “sock hop” […]
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Goot Knew
The main thing that kept us boys in line at school was the threat of corporeal punishment. Any man old enough to remember when it was legal for school teachers […]
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Bermuda Shorts—1968
The best part of me lives for the rhythms of summer, in the neon glow of youth where the songs on the jukebox never change. That old gold music reminds […]
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The Next Breath
Once, in the sixth or seventh grade, my father took me to a high school football game. We stood in the end zone watching the last gasp of another gridiron […]
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Center of the Heavens
All I wanted in high school was a date with Francine Little, the Pekingese puppy. An inexplicably magnetic agglomeration of parts she was. Seemingly mismatched parts if viewed separately, and […]
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My Pillar Fire
It was the year everything changed. Childhood was ending. We were leaving the elementary school that had been our winter home in daylight hours for seven years. The school building […]
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Boys and Their Toys
My most frequent companion in high school was an automobile, a 1965 Mustang. Not one of the hot ones, only a six cylinder. Aside from the hours of sleep, and […]