Sporadically Brian
12/22/17: The Fat Kid Who Never Was (Part two, Where’s the Beef?)
I have no photos of that ten-year-old "fat kid", struggling to please my athlete father by not complaining when I found myself playing little league football with kids two and four years older than me. [...]
12/21/17: The Fat Kid Who Never Was (Part one, Made not Born)
"I don't care what they call me," he said confidentially, "so long as they don't call me what they used to call me in school." Ralph was faintly interested. "What was that?" The fat boy [...]
12/20/17: Deviation and Affirmation, A Cruel Paradox
Well I used to be a good boy, but that’s a long time ago If it was ever good for anything it’s in the stories I have told ------------------------------------------------------------ Indeed, This process of looking back [...]
12/18/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part twelve, Another One Rides the Bus #4)
Keith was my school bus superhero... Perhaps my adult self is exaggerating a bit. I doubt he had a clue as to the impact of this one thing he did, that one morning on the [...]
12/17/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with the Modern Teenage Brain (Part eleven, Another One Rides the Bus #3)
Not all bullies are created equal, you know? But their effect on others are usually the same. Fear, and coping. I was afraid, just like the rest of the kids on the bus. So I [...]
12/16/17: The Cruel Years: Fear and Coping with Teenage Reality in 1970s America (Part ten, Another One Rides the Bus #2)
I'm standing at the end of our long country driveway, waiting for the bus. Not yet six o'clock. My thirteen-year-old body has yet to start the growth spurt that will have me towering over most [...]