Memoirs

Once upon a time, a fourteen-year-old boy began listening to Top 40 music after years of listening to country music. He was passingly familiar with the genre because of the record-breaking success of Michael Jackson’s thriller. His sister, Meg, played her cassette tape of Thriller often, leading to our hero’s curiosity about music outside of country music. She had records of various hits from the...

Once upon a time, a fourteen-year-old boy began gravitating away from country music in favor of Top 40. The transition didn’t happen all at once. In the evenings, he started by listening to Baltimore’s Top 40 station, B-104. This is where he learned some of the best one-hit (sometimes two) wonders of the 80s. Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy,” Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus,” Starpoint’s “Object of My Desire,”...

Once upon a time, a fourteen-year-old boy went roller skating on a Sunday in March at Liberty Skate in Eldersburg, Maryland. He’d planned to go a few weeks earlier but got sick with the flu, delaying the anticipated trip to the skating rink. Perhaps the illness was fate, for on this Sunday, our hero would meet the girl who’d become his first official girlfriend for the next year and five months...

Once upon a time, a fifty-one-year-old man received an email from an old friend, T.J., from his America Online days circa 1996. He’d been reading episodes from Tales of a Gen-X Nothing and had a question for our hero.

“This is not a joke or an insult, Kevin: Are you aware that you are likely an Aspie?

Once upon a time, there was an eight-year-old boy who was a rabid fan of The Dukes of Hazzard. It was an obsession. But weren’t all red-blooded boys in the late 70s and early 80s? He also had a few friends from his Cub Scout pack who weren’t part of the bully crowd. They, too, were avid Dukes of Hazzard fans...

Once upon a time, there was a fourteen-year-old boy who could finally go back to school after an unfortunate accident with gunpowder and fireworks that caused a six-week absence. In the weeks between the beginning of the 1985-86 school year and the gunpowder accident on Sept 25, this boy joined the South Carroll High School choir and met several upperclassmen.

I Once upon a time, a twelve-year-old boy sat in middle school history class, enjoying the lesson taught on the American Revolution. Mr. Bell taught the course and was one of the few teachers he liked. He’d keep the information from that class because of Mr. Bell’s teaching style. He didn’t make the kids recite boring narratives from textbooks or take endless pop quizzes all year. Mr. Bell would...

I Once upon a time, a fifty-year-old man faced epic writer’s block. He’d been self-publishing his novels since 2011. The first was a short romance-mystery story titled “Without a Word.” It’s not well written (but has since been re-edited not to be so…bad). The psychological thriller “Prisoner of the Game” followed in 2013. As of this 2023 writing, it’s one of his best-sellers, continually...

I Once upon a time, having not learned his lesson, a thirteen-year-old boy was crushing on yet another girl. For these purposes, we’ll call her Kelly, who was in his eighth-grade class. She wasn’t part of the preppy clique. Instead, she was more…redneck, for lack of a better term. Not one of the farmer cliques necessarily. If you were a teenager in the 80s, you’ll no doubt recognize the...

I Once upon a time, a six-year-old boy began second grade at Freedom Elementary School in Eldersburg, Maryland. His new teacher, Ms. Soracoe, was a very pretty woman in her mid-twenties who was as sweet as could be. All the kids in her class adored her. She’d give each of her students a friendly hug when they left her classroom after their bus number was called. That little boy looked forward to...