Category: Uncategorized
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Come on In
I showed up at their office doors. To get a B.A. I needed a course in English language, in linguistics, something not-writing and not-literature. It was a degree requirement. I was game. But I was also wary. You could sign up for a course and be entertained and edified for fifteen weeks. Or you could…
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H.A.
In the fullness of time, I was able to put letters after my name. First B.A. Then M.A. Then D.A. When I was a kid, I should have had H.A. after my name. For half ass. Case in point, my failed science fair project. This would have been elementary school, fifth or sixth grade. There…
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Bag It
I’m standing at the Trader Joe’s checkout. I have four cans of chickpeas, a ball of fresh mozzarella, a bag of arugula, and a bottle of Three Buck Chuck. They don’t waste time at Trader Joes. As soon as the cashier rings up the first item a co-worker appears next to him and shakes open…
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Surprise and Joy
One Sunday in the spring of 1974 we were invited to his house in Ann Arbor. He taught the aesthetics course I was taking that semester. He never explained, but I would guess that he’d had polio. He shuffled into the classroom behind a walker, sat in a chair at the desk in the front…
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A missed opportunity
I was standing next to the crane with a sandwich in my hand. My Italian father-in-law, the crane operator on our crew, was fixing stuff. I was going to find some shade next to one of the trucks and eat with the American guys, the five of us who had been setting panels for concrete basement…
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Just a Fad
They could hear me, of course. For some reason back then that thought never occurred to me. My parents slept with their bedroom windows open for fresh summer night air, also to hear the owls in the woods across Scott Road. That’s what they said. But they must have been listening for me some of…
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Oops
I took one bite of the shrimp and knew I was in trouble. We were in the airport restaurant in Detroit. I’d been in England for a month taking a course in Shakespeare, where I’d met this girl and, as my father would have said, “taken a shine” to her. Her parents met us at…
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A Life Lesson
Deal me out. I tossed my cards face up on the table and thought, There goes my hard earned money. It was a Saturday. I’d just cashed my check for a week’s work at my dad’s service station. I had thirty-six bucks in my pocket when I ran into Dave Marolf at the coffee shop.…
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School
I got my picture in the yearbook. Of course, if you were there on picture day, your mugshot went in the school yearbook, one of the freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior class photos, in alphabetical order. That photo of me was in there, between Anita Arnold and John Beck. This particular photo was me wearing a…
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Money managed
What was the source of your income when you were growing up? What did you learn about money? As soon as I had money coming in, my weekly allowances stopped. I was no longer on the dole. My dad took me over to Freeland State Bank and opened a savings account for me. The bank…
A Legacy Project 