“The Old Man Takes Us Out to Dinner”
Spring 1960. Los Altos, Caliifornia The Old Man decided to take us all out to dinner at the Geman Restaurant called “The Black Forest.” The Old Man ordered – Hungarian Ghoulash, Mom ordered Weiner Schnitzel and Matty opted for a Bratwurst which he proudly waved around like a baton – until he got smacked! I…
“Bum Pitch”
“HEYYYYYBATTTTAHBATTTTAH SWINNNG!” A Greek chorus of high pitched voices from little kids urge me to swing. Swing at a leather grenade that soars sixty miles an hour directly towards my head. I duck. STREEAAAIIIIKKKE ONE! yells the Umpire. A group of parents and fellow Cub teammates voice their outraged disapproval. “NOO! BOOO! THAT BALL ALMOST…
P. A. M. A. FILES: “Florsheim Shoes!” Part 1
It’s six-thirty in the morning. The air is misty with a crispness that is typical of an early Fall day in California. The morning air is redolent with the aromas of coffee, bacon, eggs, and toast wafting from the school Mess Hall. A few Robins perched on trees call a greeting to one another joyously. …
4th Grade Facts O’ Life Part 3
Trouble reared its head like the Serpent in our little Garden of Eden in the guise of a fourth-grade classmate named Bill Burg. Bill was about my height but he was a lot thinner and he had olive skin, dark brown eyes, and perfectly straight white teeth; I hated him on sight. Ok, not really.…
“King of Pain!”
It all started with a pain in the ass. I had turned thirty years old and abruptly my body began to experience troubling aging sensations. Twenty-year-old friends started teasing me about my arrival to “Middle Age” – to which I responded with my middle finger. “I ain’t that old,” I grumbled. Yet my body begged…
Sunday Night Family Barbecue
Charlie, do you want to help me barbecue today?” “Yeah! Can I?” “Sure. We can work as a team. We can take turns watching the steak grill.” On Sunday’s, The Old Man was in fine form. There was nothing he loved more than working the family barbecue. In our neighborhood, he was known as the…