Tales From A Midcentury Boy / Growing Up in Michigan

Category: Short Stories

  • Excerpt From: The Tragedy. Their Parties Never Varied

    “… when she wasn’t drinking you could say she was sweet or even funny. But, you never knew which of her ‘selves’ you’d be sitting next to at the dinner table each night.”

  • There Was His Face …

    There Was His Face  A mixture of youthful mirth, his right eyebrow a calligraphy flare at the end of a sentence, his mouth twisted into a half smile, his head cocked to the side, mischeviousness written all over it.  A question mark at the end of his eyes that said, you don’t know what I’m…

  • Excerpt from: Willy the White Rats

    Loving Willy the White Rat  My brother grew close to Willy the White Rat; feeding him and cleaning his cage. That way he got extra time to play with him on the floor or walking around while holding and petting him. He could even walk around outside while Willy sat perched on top of his head! One day…

  • Sex Is the Funniest Subject and Penis’ Are Right Up There .. Excerpts From “Derek and Kathy”

    Since, the funniest subject in the world is sex and … well, penises are right up there too .. and because Derek and Kathy had appeared, I started getting that giddy feeling, which tells me some crazy shit is about to happen.  Wull … I wasn’t disappointed. continued … When I turned to remark about the penis in ‘’yeard’’ sale, the male…

  • Rescuing the Crane First You Gotta Get To Know It Excerpts

    Crane’s Eye/Seeking Awareness  I look closely into its eye, the iris a thin orange/blood red ribbon surrounding the the pupil so large it nearly fills the entire eye socket, a dark black pool without a flicker of life. While looking into its eye, I think how great it would be to see some sense of awareness. Something that…

  • It’s About Space and Time But It’s Really About Memory

    I fixate on time constantly … When i hear the wail of a diesel’s horn or smell fresh mown grass or look out at the lake i hear the sound and i’m transported to the stored light of other times each world magnifying the other more deeply,  With each  Visit. We build our lives on the…

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    Like I Was Part Of A Giant Clock

    I was in a kind of pensive mood.  i don’t go down there that often.  I wanted to do something different.  I took my little Bose speaker along with my i-phone.  I dialed up Pandora. I played the music very low.  You know .. my drum and bass music.   The music and the colors…

  • It’s About A Boy On Tawas Point and In Durand

    Looking Out the Window Of  My Fifth Grade Classroom  The Elm Tree  From my seat in the middle of a row of desks along windows the length of my 5th grade classroom, I steal a little time each day to gaze outdoors at a meadow of brown field grass beyond the school playground. A hundred…

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    A Christmas Story

    From: Tales From A Midcentury Boy Growing Up In Michigan A Christmas Story It’s   Cold and crisp the air   crystal clear or full of light wings  falling  fat with fluff sailing where they please sideways in the  breeze with crystal  memories; they’re resting quietly in the trees  and on the ground  adding curve…

  • Along the Huron Shoreline

    Was the calm air offshore on the opposite side of Lake Huron producing the same reflecting affect I was seeing on The Point along the Lake Huron side in Michigan where I was standing?

  • Lost In Black

    TRAPPED IN BLACK      At the precise moment I realize my only chance for survival is to reach the cell phone 12’ from the bathroom shower (where moments before I had recreated the shower curtain scene from Psycho) I come to the realization that it will be impossible. …..“NOOOOOOO!! DEAR LORD NOOOOO NOT AGAIN!”…

  • Nails In the Coffin Of Our Democracy

    Nails In the Coffin Of Our Democracy

    Complacency Is the Root Of All Evil Methinks, let’s not get too complacent.  Social unrest will be a major factor in the not too distant future. What is being done to  prepare ethnic communities for invasions of racially motivated terrorists from within our borders? The Separationists will incite unrest in black and Hispanic communities as an…

  • Love Is …

    Love Is …

    What Is Love? All anyone wants is to feel loved … positive beautiful affirming of self/each other.  It doesn’t have to be anything.  It just is.  It’s a place that ‘rises above.’  Love touches in different ways than everyday “socialisms” between people. You read love on paper sometimes on the screen words that kiss and caress they…

  • He’s A Bad Mother …… Well, I’m Talkin’ ‘Bout ….. !

    He’s A Bad Mother …. Well I’m Talkin’ Bout’ …… In a fit of not rarely happening ridiculously dumb, funny shit that I’ve done and do, that happen to me constantly and because I’ve been moaning in my sleep lately and because of my hip, I decide to sleep in the little tv room on…

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    They’ve Stolen My Serenity!

    I told you yesterday that spring had sprung and i knew because i saw a fly and a bull ant on the floor by the fireplace, a tickling on my arm as i wrote this piece not fifteen minutes ago a tiny spider had invaded my space! There are gnats and mosquitos and other tiny things…

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    The Agony and the Ecstasy V Ending

      continued …. I guess you’re just supposed to put them on and pee but, I couldn’t help but wonder what was the standard volume limit?    Volume of the Dam? I looked all over for the table of contents or for some of those FAQ’s.  I found nothing about volume.  Would the damn burst…

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    The Agony and the Ecstasy IV

          continued; Boy howdy did that ring a bell with me! I Got the Urge  Next, I’ll tell you how all off these factors came together to form this super collision.   The morning of my departure I ‘suited up’ for the trip.  The gray ones looked almost dressy in my estimation.  Nice…

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    The Agony and the Ecstasy III

      Wondering About the Glory  One day during the golden hour at the end of the day mulling things over while feeding bread to the turtles I wondered, what will it be like to simply keep the gates open and let the water flow when the bladder wants it to flow all natural like?   In…

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    The Agony and the Ecstasy

        The Agony and the Ecstasy The agony of suddenly having to pee with great intensity while cruising eighty five miles an hour on the interstate with no place to pee in sight, cannot be understated! After a minute it hurts. Longer than a minute? It hurts bad. The Eternal Battle In case you’re…

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    What Is A Gandydancer?

    What Is A Gandydancer? The piece below is a segment of a larger picture. People I know with a railroad background have wondered what the railroad term Gandydancer pertains to?  There’s even a song about the gandydancers ball. My grandfather’s name was Dietrich Sr.  This is a story about how I as a ten year…

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    Nature’s Life

    She looked with cold indifference  at His efforts to teach us  the connection between our lives and nature. Bridge parties, the daily routines of life and of course  her afternoon naps, were the essential components of Her life. He gave us the freedom to explore the sandy beaches,  the dunes, trout streams and  The Great Lake…

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    Bluegills

    Bluegills We bought two cardboard containers packed with 15 or 20 corn bores covered in loose black muck, at a farm five miles from town before turning off the black top then, another three miles along a gravel road, snow plowed high on both sides, past farmers fields barely visible stretched white to the gray horizon,…

  • A Christmas Story
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    A Christmas Story

    A Christmas Story  It’s   cold and crisp,  the air between each time   crystal clear or full of light wings falling/ fat with fluff   sailing where they please, drifting sideways in the breeze with crystal memories  See them resting quietly in the trees?  On the ground adding curve to rugged spaces giving shadow’s…

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    Crane’s Obit

    continued … At precisely the same moment the explosion rocks my world I witness the most amazing sight I’ve  ever seen.   Inanimate  I need to look more closely at the bird to satisfy my curiosity about what I had seen or, not seen. I walk toward the mound of gray feathers where the bird…

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    The Crane Continues IV

    The Verdict  continued ….. I hate them for saying that.  Who are they to decide whether another living thing should live or die?   They look at each other then back at me.  Without saying a word I know the verdict.  I look at the crane, its head feathers tousled by an on shore breeze…

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    The Crane Part III

    Lowering the Crane  I lower the big crane onto the sand in the open field across from the cottage.  The instant its feet touch the ground its head drops back into the S position. Before running around to the back, I stop and look into its eye one more time.  I see no flicker of…

  • The Crane

    continued … his awareness of sights so different from its everyday world gliding high, looking down at ponds and streams, wading through water searching always searching to satisfy the hunger that gives life meaning.  The desire to live. Suddenly I know its alive!   It has awareness.  I feel a link between our searching ever curious minds. Suddenly I know…

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    Constructing the Crane: It’s Alive, It Has Awareness!

    continued ….. its wings, so large that they stretch the length of its entire body from its breastbone to the shorter thin feathers on the backside, it’s feathers lying next to each other, slightly overlapped when not in use, like a tightly louvered fan pointing downward while standing. In Flight I picture its wings in flight…

  • Constructing the Crane

    A Story About A Boy and His Pet Crane  The Crane: Prologue  They said the crane was too sick to live!  They insisted it would poke out my eye.   This was adult thinking at its worst!  The kind of overly cautious bullshit thought that leads to really stupid decisions.   I hated them for using untrue…

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    I Guess It’s Just What You Believe …..

    Of course I have friends on Facebook!  We share the past like, we’re brothers and sisters. So, one of my Facebook sisters wrote this piece as a comment to someone about some sheets that were advertised to help people sleep better. Since I’m from a small town I’m aware that topics like these can become…

  • Red Sun Rising

    The S & P down 3.09%, lower than beginning of the year.  Dow down 2.4% less than beginning of the year.  Nasdaq down 4.3% S & P down 9.68%.   Government debt highest in history borrowing based on consistent three percent growth Growth rate is 2.5% and will either remain or drop further.   New…

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    How I Fell From First Chair Drummer to Band Outcast

    How I Descended From First Chair Drummer To Band Outcast The drum section in the back left corner of our tiny band room was cordoned off from the rest of the band by a bass drum, three snare drums, three kettle drums, a set of chimes, a full sized gong and a silver glockenspiel on…

  • The Tragedy/Darkness/Death/the End

    Darkness/Death  continued … I creaked up the stairs to the landing, turned right eight more steps where I found myself  stranding in the middle of the upstairs hallway. On my left the bathroom door opened to black and white tiles, green walls, a pedestal sink and an old cast iron tub with curled feet. At the…

  • The Tragedy: The Last Time I Saw Janey

    THE LAST TIME I SAW JANEY The last time I saw Janey was at a birthday party she threw for her nephew one Saturday in late fall. Here’s what happened that day and how it figures into the tragedy. Picture yourself walking across that wide front porch to the front door.  The door opens so,…

  • The Tragedy: After Midnight

    The Tragedy continued …  Continued …  That night after midnight, I heard a commotion outside. Curious, I crept downstairs, tiptoed across the kitchen, slowly opened the sliding glass door, stepped into the screened in porch and stood in the shadows. Fifeen feet from the porch they were fighting next to a big elm tree in…

  • The Tragedy; the Incident

    The Tragedy; the Incident

    THE INCIDENT More boisterous than usual, they partied into the night at their last gathering of the summer.  At one point they stood in a circle looking like a bunch of school kids on the playground rocking back and forth on the balls of their feet, teasing each other,  giggling and guffawing. A couple of…

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    The Tragedy: Lost Tapes

    The Tragedy III The Lost Tapes Seems obvious but important to note that, looking back I can say with great surety, kids don’t want change.  They want to stay as far away from change as possible.  They want to do what they are doing and they think they can do it forever because they don’t realize…

  • The Tragedy II

    The Tragedy II

    II It all started the summer Deac and Donna partied almost every weekend with three other couples on the grass along the west side of Jim and Janey’s house one of those big ‘mission style’ houses with three dormer windows looking down onto the front sidewalk, a wide front porch six or seven steps up…

  • The Tragedy
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    The Tragedy

    The Tragedy Dragged along on their journey of repentance after the tragedy not kicking and screaming but depressed about losing life long friends to a new world, we ricocheted through time and space to the four corners then home again to where it all began before, hoping to put pieces back together that would never…

  • The Further Adventures of Gile Steele
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    The Further Adventures of Gile Steele

    Further Adventures of Gile Steele So, there he was at the hospital exactly a year later at the same time, same place having the same procedure performed, by the same doctor, in the same room, next to the nurse’s station where a year earlier several factors came together in the middle of the night causing  an unexpected event…

  • Grand Canyon Phil
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    Grand Canyon Phil

     Lynn started having severe headaches a year and a half after marrying Phil who considered himself a libertarian pledged to be a pain in the ass to every person he met. One summer they were on vacation at the Grand Canyon riding donkeys down a trail along the canyon wall around 200 feet above the…

  • G-Note Decrescendo, Finale, Bump Note
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    G-Note Decrescendo, Finale, Bump Note

    Continued.  I finally realized I didn’t know WHY the telephone was invented.  I stared straight ahead at nothing.  With a pleading look on my face I said,  ‘’Beats the shit out of me.”   When I uttered those words, all my senses shut down except my hearing.  All I remember is a wall of sound washing over…

  • How the G Note Gave Me A Neck Ache
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    How the G Note Gave Me A Neck Ache

    continued … maybe I muttered something like, ‘’well, you know how it goes,” blah, blah blah,  when suddenly the woman named Linda (who’s pretty aggressive) says rather forcefully, “Why do you think phones were invented?!’’   continued … The first thing I thought was, what the hell kind of bullshit attitude is this?  Was she trying to put me on the spot to test my mettle…

  • FaKakda fakakda
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    FaKakda fakakda

    Heard today downtown: “Fakakda this fakakda folker spoiling far a pongha fakakda, the fakakda fun a Yiddisha fakakda? that’s me!  I’m the number one fakakda fakakda best fakakda there is by far! Fakakda Me! Wooh woohwhoospuke spoof woof …. Oye veigh …. so If you don’t think this is funny then I probably need to see…

  • Where’s My Passport? Look Under the Underwear You Idiot!
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    Where’s My Passport? Look Under the Underwear You Idiot!

    I was conflicted.  Should I return the money or go on a spending spree? I thought about going to Brazil or Paraguay or even Chechnia but, I couldn’t find my freeking passport! I looked all over the place! I got so tired of looking I said, “Screw it!  I’ll stay home and watch the Ali Foreman fight on T.V.!” The…

  • Zumba My Ass Once Again?
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    Zumba My Ass Once Again?

    Zumba My Ass Once again he was saddened by the thought that, “She never thinks i’m funny!“ Most of the things HE thought were funny, SHE thought were either stupid or sexually degenerate. She hated the word ‘’shit’’ which he thought was the funniest word in the English language! And she didn’t think sex was funny which he thought was even funnier…

  • London Broil: the End Again
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    London Broil: the End Again

    continued …  “she’ll just have to eat her goddamned popcorn with butter tonight  … !  he wondered if she’d know the difference … but, he knew better … ) Two hours later when he got home she was fast asleep in bed. “Hmmmmm”, he thought. He figured that, since the next day was Saturday (and she’d be sleeping in) he’d leave early for his appointment at Peter’s Quickie Loan Place (across the…

  • London Broil: Butter or Parquay?
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    London Broil: Butter or Parquay?

    continued … when he doubled over she called him a doofey unemployed jake ass.  He laughed to himself.  ”What the hell is a ‘jake ass?”  he wondered.  continued … Most nights after cleaning the kitchen he joined her in the t.v. room even though he hated that goddamned western channel … He usually curled up with a book by his favorite author Louis L’Amor. That one night she told him she wanted popcorn.…

  • London Broil
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    London Broil

     They had meat for dinner almost every night. But for months he had been eating tomatoes and feta cheese each night even though he hated feta cheese! He couldn’t stand the taste and it made him sick! She insisted all along he become a vegetarian and she insisted he eat feta cheese even though he loved meat and potatoes.…

  • Maple Sap
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    Maple Sap

      Maple Sap Something Discovered I Thought I Had Forgotten We took turns gathering sap from the big maple trees along the street perpendicular to my house before sunrise/during late winter and early spring. What’s the world like at 4 a.m.? Not a sound in the world but for my felt lined boots, scrunching over…

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