No, I asked for it because I don’t want it! — I scurried home from a morning session with my fifth-grade teacher, Miss Clausen, on one of the first warm days of spring in 1954. Although she was a first-year teacher, she was good. …

Furrnando looks harmless enough, but don’t be fooled. He is pictured here plotting one of his attacks. In could be any one or more of the following, or even something more diabolical that he will add to his repertoire: Pull towels off the towel racks. Rip the tablecloth and runner…

By the time I was closing in on fifteen and in high school, my interests bore little resemblance to those of my pre-teenage years. With there usually being something to do on a Saturday evening, watching the Adventures of Superman on television had become a rarity. …

I imagined swarms of police cars coming at us from all directions… — (Note: “Hey, you wanna ride?” was originally published on Medium on January 26, 2022.) We journey back to 1960 and visit the old mill city of Fall River, Massachusetts. …

I knew that was going to be told to Father Tell-Me-All-Of-Your-Sins the next time she went to confession. — Note: This was one of my first posts on Medium (January 23, 2022). Minor changes have been made. We travel back in time to the 1950s, my favorite of the many decades that I have had the good fortune of experiencing. It was a hot-and-humid summer day following my being…

Leadbelly/The Beach Boys — Billy Murray/Little Richard — Gene Austin/Fats Domino — Paul Robeson/Jerry Lee Lewis — “Cotton Fields” “Cotton Fields” was written and first recorded by blues singer and guitarist Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) in 1940. The song lingered in folk music obscurity until it was recorded as “Old Cotton Fields at Home” in 1954 by Odetta and Larry and included on the album The Tin Angel…

“Mercy me,” moaned miffed Mona Mosakowski, “my magnificent Mercedes melted!” — There were only six official votes for the best alliteration, nowhere near enough to justify declaring a winner. Author, D. DenisSOe Dianaty — Damien Donovan’s dog danced down Destiny Drive delivering dire disappointment. Bill O’Halloran — Some shady stranger surreptitiously selling smuggled suitcases should stir suspicion.

She was olive-skinned, jet black hair, black eyes, full lips… — Cigarette smoking, in many respects, was an epidemic in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Unfortunately, few in the general population were aware of its dangers. In the 1950s, the problem of smoking was exacerbated as television rapidly made its way into homes in the United States. Those approaching their…