Winters in North-Central Indiana were rarely mild. Every year, we’d have snow as early as Halloween, and as late as April Fool’s Day. In between, we’d get regular snow fall, with the occasional lake-effect snowstorm blowing in off of Lake Michigan, which would bring a wave of blocked roads, sliding cars….and school cancellations. Whenever snow…
The final barrier between a 16-year old and (relative) freedom is getting actual drivers’ license. Now, by this point, I had been driving a little over a year, but on a learners’ permit, and with a parent sitting in the passenger seat. I was ready to graduate from two wheels and parental supervision to four-wheeled…
The summer of my 15th year, I wanted nothing more than to get behind the wheel of a large automobile. Even though David Byrne wouldn’t write the song for another couple years, I kept asking myself, “How do I get there?” After getting a head full of classroom knowledge in Drivers’ Ed, we graduated to…
The first car I drove was a 1971 Ford Maverick. 2 door, dark green, and about as base of a model as you could get. No pinstripes, mag wheels or body trim, just a dark green, non-descript basic mode of transportation. The interior wasn’t any fancier. Black vinyl bench seats, AM radio and not even…
Learning to drive is a teenage rite of passage for most, and more life-changing than earlier stages like riding a bike. Up until that point, there was a tendency to stay close to home, since if you rode too far, you had to make sure you could still get home before dark. It’s the first…
I’ve never been much of a night owl, but as a kid, staying up past my normal bedtime was a rare event, and I took advantage of it when I could. That was especially true at the end of the year. Christmas had come and gone, and hanging around the house instead of being in…
1991. My fiancee and I had moved down from Connecticut to Northern Virginia (to find jobs, because the CT job market sucked). She was working for a pharmaceutical company, and I was working for MCI (when it was still just a long-distance company). MCI was a meat grinder. Lots of meetings, politics, and tense ‘discussions’,…
Few traditions are more pervasive, unpredictable or unintentionally funny as the annual Christmas pageant. Many kids have been traumatized by stage fright, and even more parents have been mortified by their kids’ performances. It’s guaranteed to generate a lifetime of memorable moments….not all of them painful. Growing up in a musical family, it was pretty…
I’ve always been a huge fan of radio. Growing up, it was a way to transport my imagination beyond my small town. Whether it was to Top 40 music, listening to the national news or just hanging on late at night during a snowfall to see if school was cancelled, radio was my constant companion.…
I’ve never been much of a drinker, and at my age, I’m not likely to become one. I don’t think I even tried to sneak a beer during high school, even though lots of my friends did, and it was a common thing to go to a party out on somebody’s remote farm, where the…