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SKID CHAINS
Just north of the home where I was raised was a road that ran from St. Louis to Clayton, Missouri. It is naturally called Clayton Road. West of our house was a road that ran north and south; it ran from Clayton, Missouri to Brentwood, Missouri and it was called North and South Road. As…
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IT AIN’T NATURAL
For a short time, I have debated between the current title of “It Ain’t Natural” and another title, “Ez-ree Revisited.” But in the end I selected the title of the business about naturalness. There is a certain amount of nostalgia in this essay because it has to do with the original Ezra, my father. Ezra…
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RADIATORS BOILING OVER
As I am dictating this essay, it is approaching the end of October. When I worked in the filling station business, the people who owned the filling stations ordinarily would set out to buy antifreeze at this time of year. As everyone will recall, the radiators on automobiles are almost always located near the front…
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STUPIDO, STUPIDO, STUPIDO
Last week, which would have been the early part of June 2010, there was an announcement by two high-level vice presidents of the General Motors Corporation, that they were going to get rid of the “Chevy” trademark. As most Americans would do, I interpreted that to mean that General Motors was going to rid itself…
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IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS
In the fall of 1997, Shirley Morganstein was the Director of Speech Therapy at the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute in West Orange, New Jersey. In November of that year, I had a stroke that had spared my limbs but had left me with a galloping case of aphasia, which is why I consulted Shirley Morganstein. Thirteen…
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HE/SHE/THEY SAID THAT?! Volume IV
Volume IV There are four exclamations that will wrap up the story on He, She, They Said That?! They come from widely varied sources. The first one is about a preacher in New Providence, New Jersey and the owner of a filling station/garage across the street. My recollection is that in 1956, there…
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HE/SHE/THEY SAID THAT?! VOLUME II
VOLUME II This is the second volume of “They Said That?” This essay will lean heavily on my experience in the labor relations field and on my work as an attendant in the filling station business. In the labor relations field, there are some rich quotations. There was a division accounting manager for AT&T…
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DON’T FORGET YOUR CHANGE
In Missouri where I come from, we don’t like fanciful titles or road signs. The main highway leading from St. Louis to Clayton, Missouri, my home town, is called Clayton Road. It is so called because it goes to Clayton. Similarly, in the suburbs of St. Louis there was a road called North and South. …
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LEARNING TO DANCE
Earlier today I dictated a small essay having to do with Polk salad. I identified that as an essay which had a nostalgic ring to it. It involved my mother and her habit of gathering the Polk weed or vegetable in the early springtime. I was raised largely as an only child. All my siblings…
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ESCORTS VS. PLAIN OLD PROSTITUTION (POP)
I do not intend to claim great expertise in the field of escorts or in the field of plain old prostitution. What brings all of this to mind is an incident earlier in April of this year wherein some Secret Service agents had a soiree in Cartagena, Colombia and then invited the women to their…