Funny you should ask. I’ve enrolled in an on-line blogging course by WordPress, called “Blogging 101”. It lasts several weeks, and is intended to get you (or me in this case) in the habit of blogging regularly by providing daily “assignments”.
So, today’s assignment is “who am I”? Well, from my “about page”, I think it tells a fairly straight-forward story. For the purpose of this blog, let’s color outside the lines a bit.
My hometown? Hazardville, CT. That’s right. At one time (for a brief year of two), we even had our own zip code. However, they soon realized that Hazardville was a bit too small to warrant such a distinction, so it was taken away from us, and we were lumped in with Enfield.
In 1960, I was eight years old. In 1970, I was 18, so I guess you could call me a child of the 60’s. We had two gas stations in town, one general store (E.C. Allens), one drug store (with a soda fountain – 5 cent and 10 cent root beers), one barber shop, a dry cleaners, Bridges Lumber and Hardware on the edge of “town”, and 3 churches. Oh, two liquor stores and the A.C. Luce appliance store. Mom worked as a crossing guard and would spend half her pay-check making weekly payments on a new appliance, and the other half at the liquor store. They were actually side by side in the same building on the corner of Main and Maple, so it was pretty convenient.
I belonged to Boy Scout Troop 108, sold Tom-Wat gifts out of a cardboard suitcase to raise money for camp, had a paper route (got bit by a dachshund), broke my wrist (left) jumping over a log in the woods, played little league (until I got to fast pitch), and went fishing as often as I could.
My first girlfriend was Carol Harris (kissed her at an eight grade dance). In high school I played soccer, ran track (I was a quick little guy), and wrestled for a couple of years. All the sports that played second fiddle to football.
I worked on tobacco (hard work at 65 cents/hour) and then decided that I didn’t want to do that, so I worked every summer for 4 years at Lake of Isles Boy Scout Camp (where my friend Ed taught me how to swear) in North Stonington, CT. (It’s now a very large casino). I when fishing several times a week, had the chef (Max) cook up my catch for me on occasion, and even had my own row-boat. I still like rowing today. Very relaxing to listen to the water slide past the hull and dripping off the oars as you lift them up and back.
Oh, when I turned 18, the state of CT tried an experiment and made the drinking age 18. That was pretty sweet. When I turned 21, they decided it hadn’t been a very good idea after all (I could have told them that), and changed it back to 21. I survived that little experiment, just barely.
If you read between the lines, I think that gives you a pretty good idea as to who I am (or at least who I was). I’ll be back when the next assignment comes in.
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