Founding The Down Under at FSU
By now my readers know I was involved in the folk music world of the 60’s. That lasted into the 90’s. I’ll tell that story another time and what eventually led me away from that clientele. There was a woman named Nancy I was interested in during my 2 years at FSU. A mutual friend, […]
Imagine
I do business in the Orlando area and one of my favorite things is to poke around Park Ave. near Rollins College in Winter Park. At least you can get a good cup of coffee there. One day Martha and I are walking down the street. At the door of a storefront on a corner […]
Basset Hounds
I grew up with Basset Hounds. Sweet stinky clowns. Needed baths, practically daily! Jackie Cooper, a former child actor, starred in a black and white 1950s sitcom called The Peoples’ Choice. It featured his pet Cleo, a talking basset hound, who commented on the goings on. Every time a popular show has a purebred pet […]
Jim Garrison
Here is a story I never thought I would write. A friend is a writer/editor. She has read some of my stories and said I should create a fictional character and drape my life on him. She said a memoir only works if you have interacted with famous people. With Oliver Stone’s biopic of […]
Why Do You Think They Called them Heavenly Blue and Pearly Gates?
My friends and I in the ’60’s never went “on to” (marijuana is a gateway drug, my ass!) cocaine, heroin or so called “hard” stuff, but anything psychedelic was fair game. A high school friend, Craig, and I read that morning glory seeds could get you high. They were probably poisonous as well. That did […]
The Europeans
Our family lost pretty much everyone in Europe during the Holocaust. A couple of folks had made it to Israel. Three people survived in the camps and returned to Prague. Emil Spitzer, his wife, and his nephew Karl Unger. Karl has appeared in some histories of the Holocaust. I have an original letter after the […]
The Gorilla
My mother Silvia was very sensitive about what other people thought. She was easily humiliated. When I was a little kid the Bronx Zoo got a gorilla. This was a rare in those days. She took me north on the subway from Brooklyn to go see it. A Chassid got on the train a stop […]
Boy Scout Camp
Camp Sebring was a huge Boy Scout camp in South Florida when I was a kid. It is closed now. We would all pile into a car at the tail end of a Florida East Coast Railroad train (away from the grown up passengers of course!) for the trip there. I do not remember how […]
Rochester
Thanks to my father growing up our house was living in a science library. I had my own chemistry lab which led to being a child science prodigy. Many of the thing I did came about due to the actions and decisions of parents and teachers, not by me. I […]
Gamble Rogers
While revising this story I realized it repeats things that are shared in other posts, but I felt I should leave it in as not everyone is reading every post (There are over 50 now! 😊). One of my most cherished relationships with a folk singer was with Gamble Rogers. I first heard him perform […]