Back in the hippie days I acquired a white Stetson 5X Beaver cowboy hat. It had been a gift to a big-headed man. As it did fit me, it was convenient to us both. I flattened the brim, pushed the top out round, and put a feather in it. I had a vision of some…
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At 53, if someone had asked me who Vincent Van Gogh was, I’d have said, “he’s the guy who cut off his ear.” Shortly after my first divorce, I took a lady on a date to the Getty; see some art and go to dinner. We looked at paintings of famous old dead men and…
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Never get in a fight with the youngest kid in his family. It took years to make that deduction. Finally, it came to me when someone said, “My big sister hits harder than that.” I was the oldest in my family. Not only could I not take a punch, but I was afraid of hurting…
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Unkie (Aunts and Uncles) My uncle was a sailor in the war. I called him Unkie. My earliest memories of him had him in that dark blue wool uniform with the white cap; the square shoulder flap like a small cape. Since our extended family treated him with such respect, I did too.…
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Fragrant Flashbacks I was in my teens—so many things I didn’t understand. So many aspects of life that I did because I thought I should or I did because I was compelled. And I was too close to myself for perspective, so all I could do was respond…
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4-7-20 Last night, my dream wizard had me working in a voting station. I looked up and a woman pulled her blouse back and flashed me. While that might seem like a nice dream wizard move, this one was different. The woman flashed her scar from a mastectomy. And her blank look portrayed…
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In the early 1950’s, my grandmother lived along the highway between Palm Springs and Los Angeles. She raised chickens and sold sold fryers on ice and eggs. Between her wood-slatted hen houses were two eucalyptus stumps. One stump was my haven from the headless chickens that ran flapping and spurting blood. I was Caesar, fascinated…
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In the early 60’s, I had a morning newspaper route. In five years, only a couple people didn’t pay their subscription. Honor was still a virtue. But one man didn’t pay and then moved. On collection days when I knocked on his door, even with his car in the driveway, no one answered. I was…
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When I was five years old, my grandmother got me a Saturday job with her neighbor, Mrs. Madison. My job was to help collect eggs and feed the chickens. I scattered grain and filled the water cans. I didn’t collect eggs from any hens that pecked at my hands. I did carry the basket, but only…
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Grad Night 1968. Disneyland hosted an all-night grad night for high school seniors in South California. About twenty classmates and I dropped LSD for the first time, on the bus to The Magic Kingdom. The little pills were called Blue Flats. Pharmaceutical. Word was they were made at UCLA.…
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Susan B Coombs Jr. High School. Seventh Grade. Miss Davies. Homeroom. We were given a woodcut/Rorschach image to view, then write a poem. I don’t remember the poem. But Miss Davies told the class that we had a fine writer and poet in our class, then read my poem. My ears blazed. I felt like…
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For years, I subscribed to Omni magazine. They gave me concrete visions of the future, belief in possibility. While The Twilight Zone freed my imagination, Omni told me who was working on what and how it would affect us all. When new technology became available, I’d been expecting it. Like The Sun, it became a…
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Honest Work Working as a carpenter was the most honest work I have ever done. In the beginning, I saved for the family that hadn’t yet materialized. Later, I left the house treading softly with babies snuffling familiar scents. My wife always got up with me, made me breakfast, handed me a lunch. Those…
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Windows fogged, bad shocks rocking, breathing like final breaths on a battlefield, bucket seats belong on kayaks, Danny Kaye got rich and nobody knew what he looked like.
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Cadaver Lab Formaldehyde Shiny floors And two black bags with zippers Awaiting parturition I sought secrets revealed by the dead A sexy professor with smooth skin Pulled round the zippers And let in the light Illuminating a brain behind the skull A heart behind the breast A…
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Eighth graders took PE, but we didn’t shower. Freshmen in high school showered. Fifty years later, that seems no big deal. But. The summer before my freshman year, I still didn’t have hair on my balls. Determination was my long suit, my key to success. I willed hair to grow on my balls. It didn’t…
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In 1953 I would have been five. Gas was something like, 19.9 cents a gallon. It smelled good wafting in the window while the attendant washed the windows. The attendant I remember was giving a lecture into our Plymouth. My mom, a recent war bride from England sat beside my father. My little sister and I…
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First day My mom looked down into the box camera. I smiled from the first step of the bus. I wore a green wool sweater. I tilted my head down a little. And I wonder what kind of boy I’d been if I’d have had my chin up and…
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Food These days a food phenomenon might involve kale and chia seeds. In the mid 50’s our family loaded up the Plymouth and drove twenty-five miles to McDonalds. Hamburgers were 19 cents. We split an order of fries and I got my own bone-chilling chocolate shake. Eisenhower was President, America had the atomic bomb,…
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