Had an exchange of letters with grandson Drew, a nearly-teen. He had a school assignment to contrast and compare his times with mine. Clickbait if ever I saw one. But it tripped me out. What, indeed, was it like, to be a kid in the 50s. So, thank you Drew, and check out the 1950s when … More Now & Then
My friend Michael Rossman argued that we must have rituals, and that if we’re gonna give up on those offered to us, we should make up our own. Referencing Lorca, the poet of Spain, Michael insisted that there must be a wedding, even within a war. And so there was. Yes there was. And in … More Find Joy
In 1976 or so, Jackson Browne wrote about traveling in a tour charter, saying: We’ve got country and western on the bus, R & B We got disco in eight tracks and cassettes in stereo We’ve got rural scenes & magazines We’ve got truckers on CB We’ve got Richard Pryor on the video So, ‘stereo’, … More What a Long Strange Trip
At it’s best, it looked like this with me as Ralphie. I wanted the BB gun too, but also my school, the coal furnace, the front yard, clothes… my childhood really looked like this. Earth tones clothes, furniture and walls. One telephone in the house, one electric plug per room. Snow suits. Until … More The First Years
Today another story out there about who killed President Kennedy. Fifty years ago. Like maybe who or what did it is still alive and ready to confess. Or that finally confirming this or that version changes anything. It’s my sense that all these whodunit pieces in print and TV are created by people who weren’t … More JFK
First off, the statute of limitations on my crime has surely expired and one little inter-state move of a ‘quantity for sale’ of marijuana probably doesn’t matter as much now as it sure as hell did in 1970. Second, jail is weird space. If you haven’t been in, there’s no way to get it. … More 24 Hours to Life in Reno
Tom DeVries 