Monthly Archives: December 2017

12/10/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part four, Still the Good Boy)

I always listened to my Mother I was afraid of my Dad I respected all my teachers I sat in front of the class --------------------------------------- No... my parents were far from perfect, and despite my "above average intelligence" I was far from a top student. But I have no doubt, the reasons I did reasonably [...]

By |2018-02-03T19:36:51-06:00December 10th, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/10/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part four, Still the Good Boy)

12/9/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part three, From Chaos to Clampdown)

… what teenagers do when bored and unsupervised.  ------------------------------------------------------- My adult mind just can't help itself. I can't help but think about how logical it all seems now. That the chaos, the perpetual instability of our brand new and modern John Adams Jr. High School. It was inevitable. It makes perfect sense. It even makes sense [...]

By |2018-02-03T19:35:12-06:00December 9th, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/9/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part three, From Chaos to Clampdown)

12/8/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part two, Mostly Confused)

For three years, me and my classmates were beta testers for the brand new and modern ideas of a bunch of academics fresh out of school themselves. They were excited young adults with stable educational experiences behind them and exciting new careers ahead. We were scared and confused teenagers with whatever our childhood was behind [...]

By |2018-02-03T19:34:36-06:00December 9th, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/8/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part two, Mostly Confused)

12/7/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part one, Barely Organized Chaos)

“America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.”  ― Sigmond Freud ----------------------------------------------- Yup... I was the unwitting subject of many experiments. My parents started me early with their modern, by the book parenting (early 1960's modern books, that is...) and later [...]

By |2018-03-31T11:47:58-05:00December 7th, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/7/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part one, Barely Organized Chaos)

12/6/17: Stuffing the Imp

Yesterday I picked up a woman at a location I'd never been before. It was a brand new location, in a fairly new Kapolei shopping center. Not really that hard to find but I had some difficulty finding it anyway so by the time I did pull up to help her on board, I was [...]

By |2018-02-25T05:37:18-06:00December 6th, 2017|The Life of Brian (In the Now)|Comments Off on 12/6/17: Stuffing the Imp

12/5/17: You Taught Me

  I was born big and strong Eyes wide open, full of song Quick to laugh, quick to cry Wasn’t dumb but not too clever If that means I seemed to never Look too hard and question why But every night in dreams I’d fly   And at the time I thought you were my [...]

By |2018-02-05T01:10:44-06:00December 5th, 2017|Song Lyrics|Comments Off on 12/5/17: You Taught Me

12/3/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part four, Weapons for Peace)

I had already been overwhelmed by the best weapons adults have over such things as childish wars. -------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to finish this story with a few thoughts from my "adult" self but first... Every day I read about, hear of and see so many, SO MANY! examples of children (of all ages and from [...]

By |2018-02-03T19:23:29-06:00December 3rd, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/3/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part four, Weapons for Peace)

12/2/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part three, Real Violence)

Well into my so-called "adulthood" (sometime in the early 90's so I was in my early 30's) I remember watching (and yes joining) my younger friends from my second college experience in River Falls, Wisconsin (they were of course still in their 20's) as they/we put together, played with and eventually terrorized the town with... [...]

By |2018-02-18T19:31:55-06:00December 2nd, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/2/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part three, Real Violence)

12/1/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part two, All in the Family)

The armchair psychologist that is my adult self can not help but make note here, how the social dynamics of our little midwestern, middle-class, cul-de-sac world must have fit so nicely into several stereo-typical family scenarios. And how these must have been a factor in the experience my child self would have, of went on [...]

By |2018-02-03T19:22:13-06:00December 1st, 2017|Memoirs|Comments Off on 12/1/17: Dead End: Fake War and Real Violence on 16th Avenue (Part two, All in the Family)