Memoirs

It's just another fall morning on Steiger road (the Steiger family owned the largest farm in these parts, but much of it has been sold off over the years) and I'm standing at the end of our driveway. Waiting for the bus. It's very peaceful at first. Dad and Bruce both left a while ago and Stacy's [...]

They were trying to parent differently… better than what they had had. ---------------------------------------------------- And from where I sit today, my parents were successful, and I was damned lucky. Lucky that; despite the fact that every day for most of my preteen and teenaged life, I was being systematically abused, conditioned by my older brother to [...]

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. The above photo of me in the hockey gear (do I look fat to you?) is from at least a [...]

"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 glanced over his shoulder, then leaned toward Ralph. He whispered. "They used to call me Piggy!" ---- William Golding from Lord [...]

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 bus. But it made all the difference for me. What Keith did (and I know he wasn't even doing it [...]

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 had to find a way to cope. The moment I got on, I was on guard. A quick glance to [...]

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 of my classmates by the time I'm in the ninth grade. But I'm quite strong. Still, I ache from the [...]

"Up and Adam!... Let's go boys! Let's go!" Actually, Dad rarely had to roust me like he did my younger brother Clark many years later when he was a teenager. Good boy me was almost always up and ready to do my chores by the time Dad got back from his morning run. The old [...]

Nothing modern Nothing new Fear and coping With the few --------------------------------- And it really is only a few who make the difference. The difference between a group of dynamic, joyful young people sharing snippets of their fun and interesting lives for the relatively short duration of a bus ride to school... and a seemingly endless [...]

I'm going to piggy-back on yesterday's post remembering some joy, and take this opportunity (and it won't be the last) to gush a bit about what wonderful parents I was bless to have been born to. See... they weren't only loving and attentive to my needs as their son. They weren't only forward thinking and [...]