Category Archives: Lessons

Steady Catcher

Posted on August 30, 2010 by sputterpub

When I was 8, the kids on the block made me their steady catcher. We lived on a dead end street named Leuce Place, about four houses from the bulb-shaped terminus. Because our street didn’t go anywhere few cars traveled … Continue reading →

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How to Be a Good Lover

Posted on August 26, 2010 by sputterpub

When I was 15 I had it figured out. It was all theoretical then, but not less true for that. I’d spent some time on the subject. I’d read what I could without humiliating myself (I considered the illustrations in … Continue reading →

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Brain Train

Posted on August 25, 2010 by sputterpub

When I was 13 I learned how quickly our brains can be trained. We were all required to take a class called Reading Communications, and the classroom contained a tool called a tachistoscope. “Tachis” is from the Greek, for speed, … Continue reading →

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Moot Question

Posted on August 24, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was around 41, I asked my kids the question we haven’t yet answered. I think it was summertime, which made Danny 9 and Katie on the approach to 15. “Imagine you have a perfectly balanced coin,” I … Continue reading →

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Egolibrium

Posted on August 20, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was 13, my 10-year old brother asked our dad, “Why is it when I leave my milk out it warms up, and when I don’t eat my soup it cools down?” Dad stopped dunking bread in his … Continue reading →

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Autodidacts

Posted on August 19, 2010 by sputterpub

When I was 15 we moved from Chula Vista to Larkspur, and I met Ellen. It was a huge relocation, from as south as California gets to the San Francisco Bay Area, from a three-year high school with a closed … Continue reading →

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Birthday Books

Posted on August 18, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was about 12 my father gave me Arundel, by Kenneth Roberts. He’d already established the tradition of presenting me with a book every birthday, and that paperback, my first historical novel, was his choice around then. I … Continue reading →

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Drop Out

Posted on August 17, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was 24 I dropped out of school. For a precocious kid, it sure took me long enough. I always did well at school but I never liked it. I remember being eager for it before I went … Continue reading →

Posted in Lessons, School | 1 Comment

Dear Diary

Posted on August 16, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was 14 years old, I kept a diary. It was a corny store-bought book, bound in imitation leather and labeled “Diary” in golden script, starting its lined pages with January. I kept it that year and continued … Continue reading →

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Googling

Posted on August 13, 2010 by sputterpub

     When I was 60, I got the idea to google “he grabbed me by my slender neck.” And there they were: the words of the verse I’d heard in fifth grade with such delight that I’d pushed them into … Continue reading →

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