Friday July 20, 1979 my mom took a day off from her job at On the Spot, a cleaning supply company located out in the Valley. It was the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and she thought it would be a good opportunity for us to learn something.
Walking through the Pratt campus one hot sticky day in the late spring of 1989, I made the decision to just go for it. My friend Jordan had invited me to stay the whole summer with him in LA. Yeah, California.
My mother died seventeen years ago tonight. It’s funny the things you remember, you know. I know that everyone suffers loss, it’s such an old story that there’s almost no story to be told at all. But it sure is weird the things you remember, stuff gets stuck in amber doesn’t it? Someone dies, practically […]
If you would, please, bear with an old man, for I have a digressive tale to tell, full of reminiscences (I can’t help myself – the world was so small back then). I’m going to take you back, back like a rocking chair (as we used to say); back several decades to 2014 (yes, I […]
By late 1981 my family and I were living on Hollywood Boulevard in post-glamorous Hollywood, California. Sometimes, just living amidst the hookers and general squalor of the Hollywood Premiere Motel got to be a bit much. Luckily I had a distracting refuge just a few blocks away. In those days the Rock City Arcade existed […]
I haven’t lived in New York since 1999. But I’m still a New Yorker, there’s no doubt about that! It’s like being a Marine, once one; always one. But I’ll admit something here, I’ve lost track. And for that I’m very concerned. I haven’t been there for years now and it’s changed so much, and […]
All through 1984 and early ’85, I targeted a date on my calendar; it was my graduation from Miami Beach High. Diligence and aptitude in High School had prepared me for, what? I wasn’t sure. There wasn’t anything that really inspired me, so I let the opinions of some that I respected propel me along […]
Jeannine Wooten was a dreamer. Like many dreamers, she was given to the get-rich-quick scheme. This may imply to you a generalized lack of energy or effort on her part, but to that I must reply, oh, contraire!
The following is from a 7th Grade homework assignment, dated April 15th, 1980 (spelling has been corrected and the narrative tightened up a tad) My little sister Mary and I were just walking up Wilcox Avenue one day last week and saw a sign across the street from the Post Office: “Grand […]
For most kids, the transition from Junior High to High School is not that different. Sure, there’s a little fear of the unknown and a little relocation involved, but going from 9th to 10th Grade shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It’s just a combination of old and new friends in largely familiar surroundings. […]
I lived in New York for 12 years. In that time I went through a lot of stuff, I guess like anybody would over a 12 year span. But I finally decided I wanted something better (and I say that full in the knowledge that I consider New York to be the best city in […]
It’s not unusual that singular observations come at you enough times to where they harden into opinions. But it’s quite rare (and not to mention gratifying) when those observations and opinions (even the ones where nobody else seems to agree) are proven beyond a reasonable doubt. “Reasonable doubt?!” you might scoff. “Why yes,” I’ll attest, […]