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[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] 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] 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] PASTC-5M Super Galaxy, the successor to the C-5When I was a very little boy, we lived in Horsham, Pennsylvania near an Air National Guard base. The drone of the large planes flying overhead was part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I assume that at least some...

[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] PASTMe at Camp Harmony, Spring 1992This story takes us back to my adventures with the Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS), as recounted in Hot Mess Express. After my excommunication from the San Antonio Catholic Worker House, I became sick as a dog for a week....

[ad_1] DISTANT PASTMarsland Thanksgiving 1977My family moved from Horsham, PA to West Hartford, CT in 1973. For the next six years, we would make trips back to Pennsylvania for holidays such as Easter, occasionally Christmas, but always Thanksgiving. The Marsland clan...