Curations from the Human Jungle
(Author’s Note: On February 9, 2024- exactly 60 years after The Beatles made their U.S. debut on The Ed Sullivan Show- my sons, Jacob and Patrick gave me the present of a year’s membership in Storyworth.com, an online service designed to help people write their own memoirs. Further, Jake thought that the fulcrum of the... Continue Reading →
It’s 9:17 am on March 26, 2024 in San Miguel de Allende when an old man reflects upon the moment when the die was cast. *********************************** It was May Day, 1970. Rumors were swirling that there would be trouble in New Haven over the weekend. The Black Panthers were gathering in support of Bobby Seale.... Continue Reading →
For God, for Country, and For Yale, I’m living proof of a fairy tale. Gettin’ smart don’t get much cooler … Go Bulldogs! Yeah ... Boola! Boola! —From my musical Autobio-grafitti, From the 4-0-1 to the 8-0-2 I retired from both music and sports when I arrived in New Haven... Continue Reading →
So … I accepted with the left, and left Moses Brown as a memory. The summer of 1966 was my summer of emancipation. There were no tests to worry about, no sports teams to stay in training for, no college applications … I had a car (my 1960 Pontiac Catalina) and my guitar (a 1965... Continue Reading →
The year after I gave Alan Hassenfeld the fishing net, everything changed. He got a girl friend, Nancy Krause, who lived midway between us on Grotto Avenue. Her big brother Bob was a star on the Moses Brown basketball team, so not surprisingly Nancy was a whole head taller than Alan. Height, like socio-economic status,... Continue Reading →
One of the transcendent words of my generation is “cool.” “Hot” has morphed from jazz to women. “Groovy” has gone the way of flower power. “Boss” and “gear” came and went with the British Invasion, but “cool” has endured. I was many things in high school, but cool was not among them. Mason Watson, on... Continue Reading →
My Aunt Margaret died in 1963. She was the fun-loving of the Foster girls. She married Arthur J. Feltham, and the two of them led a life that, by the rest of the family standards, was quite glamorous. They drove to Florida in his Cadillac. I remember seeing a picture of the Felthams posing with... Continue Reading →
Silverbacks and Silverbelles eagerly awaiting the arrival of Chapter 5 of Extra-Ordinary were disappointed make that "distraught" ... when it did not arrive in their Inboxes at the stroke of 7 am. It actually was published on silverbackdigest.com at that moment, but was not sent to your Inboxes. In researching why this did not happen... Continue Reading →
After surviving the trauma of the tie, the rest of Moses Brown was smooth sailing. That is, of course, both a cliche and an exaggeration, but not by much. There was some social stratification. One of the conditions of my scholarship was that I was expected to perform some light work. Over the years this... Continue Reading →
My first home was the Charlesgate East Apartments in Boston’s Back Bay, almost within the shadow of Fenway Park. Whenever I take in a Red Sox game, I always look to see if there is a commemorative plaque. There never is! From Charlesgate East we moved to Albany, NY, as my father, a manager with... Continue Reading →