This story is in the Growing Up New Jersey collection, a series of vignettes slouching their way into becoming a book. See more vignettes in this collection at the Short Stories &c. link above. Some months just stand out. October 1957 is one of those months. That was the month the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. On October 4, 1957, to be exact. If you were around in October 1957, you’d know that Americans…
This story is in the Growing Up New Jersey collection, a series of vignettes slouching their way into becoming a book. See more vignettes in this collection at the Short Stories &c. link above. There are rumors circulating that the world is about to end, so this seemed like a timely posting. I don’t have a clue what it’s like today, but in 1954 Sussex County, New Jersey, was a very dark place at night, indeed. Especially to a four-and-a-half-year-old…
This story is in the Growing Up New Jersey collection, a series of vignettes slouching their way into becoming a book. See more vignettes in this collection at the Short Stories &c. link above. “Try it, don’t take it.” That’s what the man renting the bicycles on the boardwalk at Atlantic City said as I straddled the wonderful piece of machinery he handed off to me. An adult might know what that meant. The man renting the bicycles for sure…