To the big fair in Springfield we all go up. I drink a bad soda and quickly throw up. The rest of the fair is pretty outrageous As the other kids all think I’m contagious. Fair nearer home filled me with dread Seeing a horse pulling weights suddenly drop dead. They now hold this event… Read More

I have always loved model (never call them “toy”) trains.  I doubt if there is anything particularly Freudian about that — though I have built any number of tunnels for my sets over the years — but I do sometimes wonder what it says about me.  My best guess is that it reflects a broader… Read More

Sinatra sang of having regrets, but too few to mention. Both my wife and I had long previous marriages. Plenty of anniversaries, but a few regrets.   So we married with cautious optimism. Our wedding invitation made this clear: “In a glorious triumph of hope over experience…”   Given our past histories, And our advancing… Read More

I am always reluctant to recycle old Retro stories — are the adventures of my life really that finite? – but I felt I just had to do so this week, at least as a starting point, since this story of “The Grand Tour” (“TGT”) with my mother, brother and grandmother when I was sixteen,… Read More

Please excuse the oxymoron, but, as I assume is the case with most Retro writers, I am now violently anti-gun. Read More

[Warning: This story is about as prosaic as they come. Insomniacs particularly welcomed.] As a little kid, my “can’t leave home without it” was a teddy bear.  And its name?  Teddy.  My older brother Tom dumped on me for that name but, as some may recall from our recent pet names story, he named our… Read More

I watched a lot of TV game shows as a kid.  I won’t bother listing all that I remember, as I’m sure many will be cited and discussed in other Retro stories.  And, for whatever reason, I have absolutely no interest in watching game shows now — even “Jeopardy,” which I have always considered quite… Read More

This week’s prompt reminds me of the famous Groucho Marx line (apocryphal or not): “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”  Indeed, I would not be surprised if some of the other Retro writers also cite it this week. In any event, to the extent it applies… Read More