Suprise Me

A Real-World Education by (1 Story)

Prompted By Honesty

/ Stories

In the fall of 1976, I lied on an application in order to get a job as a janitor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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No Way To Say Goodbye by
200
(302 Stories)

Prompted By The Great Beyond

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My first experience with death was my grandfather’s, when I was eleven years old. Both of my maternal grandparents (Nana and Papa) lived with us in our big brick house in New Jersey, and had for as long as I can remember — possibly since before I was born. My grandmother had one of the…
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Grundy by
200
(359 Stories)

/ Stories

I have learned that all “tweens” go through tough adolescent years; it seems to be a universal truth. Mine seemed particularly brutal, as we moved from Detroit to a near-suburb, I skipped a grade at this crucial period, the new girls were far more sophisticated and I had a particularly ugly adolescence with buck teeth,…
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Playback 2011: The Summer of Love by
10
(19 Stories)

Prompted By Weddings

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Pianist Robin Meloy Goldsby recalls a handful of unique, international weddings, as seen from the other side of the Steinway. Here comes the bride . . .
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It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To by
200
(302 Stories)

Prompted By Parties

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I love parties! I almost always have a great time at them. Certainly college parties are among my fondest memories of those years. But for me, the good ones don’t seem to make for interesting stories. So here’s a story about the worst party of my life. 1966. The drinking age in New Jersey was…
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Bookends by
100
(141 Stories)

Prompted By Theater

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As introverted and retiring as I am now, I was much more so back in 1975.
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Top Forty by
50
(88 Stories)

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Then came a series of questions about rock music, meant, I'm sure, to be my downfall.
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Birmingham to Columbus by
25
(34 Stories)

/ Stories

Sorry, I can’t think of a song for this story, it’s too solemn a subject. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in Birmingham, AL, for the quarterly meeting of the Environment Sector of the Electric Power Research Institute.  After breakfast at the hotel, a group of us piled into a van to…
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You Do What You Can by
100
(141 Stories)

Prompted By Favors

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She had been taken to the ER after attempting suicide, and would be in there for some days. Would we take care of her dog?
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A dream, an encounter, a magical moment (and more) by
50
(77 Stories)

/ Stories

When Dave returned to the phone and told me the call had been from a “John Steptoe,” I thought my roommates were playing a practical joke.
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