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[ad_1] PASTOcean City 1973Most summers I spend a week at the shore in Ocean City, New Jersey. My Aunt Sue and Uncle Bruce generously host. From the time that I was a baby — in fact, when I was still in my mother’s womb — my family would go to Ocean...

[ad_1] The pandemic was rough on us “right-wing anti-vaxxers.”(Who knew being consistently right would be so exhausting?)You might have felt alone at times—but you never were.Meet your tribe.Yankee Doodle Soup is a collection of essays by a diverse group of writers...

[ad_1] PASTBefore hyperactive was a diagnosis truly in vogue, it was applied to me, and I was medicated with Ritalin. The doctor who prescribed it was a kind looking man with a deep, resonant voice name Dr Robert Allyn Kramer. He was a mensch; a kind and gentle man...

[ad_1] PASTMy big, strong dadMy dad was a sales representative for a series of companies which make walk-in freezers. His customers were restaurants and fast food chains. He worked for Bastian Blessing, Vollrath, Frigidaire and Masterbilt. After my mom and dad...

[ad_1] DISTANT PASTOnce upon a time there were classes in art, music and gym from Kindergarten through senior year in high school.  Budget cuts, oversized classes and teaching to standardized test scores rather than comprehension and life skills have all taken an axe...

[ad_1] PASTI’ve always been small. If you believe that adversity builds character, then I’m a capital C Character, as I’ve encountered my share of bullies. But sometimes they bit off more than they could chew.This story can be told today because we have exceeded the...

[ad_1] PASTToday I have a facility with numbers and finances, but that wasn’t always the case. When I was a boy, I delivered papers for the New Britain Herald. It was an afternoon paper, back when there were such things. In my substack Capital C Characters, I wrote...

[ad_1] Helen Boyd Marsland and Walter Stanley Marsland, Jr (my Pop pop)PASTA refrain which I heard frequently as a child was that I was “just looking for attention.” I had some intuition that this wasn’t a bad thing, but it was framed as just that by some of the...

[ad_1] PROLOGUEWriting has held solace and meaning for me since I was a boy, sending and receiving letters to my Pop pop, Aunt Julie and Grandma Jones. In ninth and twelfth grades I had a superb English teacher named Kate Forney. Never do I put pen to paper without...