This was very hard to believe, that morning!
I’ve got a memory for you.
Early one morning in 1989–35 years ago–I had a date to teach in St. Helena’s School. It was still dark out and I was hoping to squeeze in one more nap… when my wife came into the bedroom and announced, “There’s no more Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has collapsed.”
Whoa-ho-ho! For real? The Russian Bear, the boogieman. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, the heart of the Cold War. The USSR–kaputsky? Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev saying “We will bury you.” All of that was now over?
But that’s enough from me. What about your memories? The contest’s halfway over, but it remains open to everyone, and you can enter as often as you like. Win an autographed book or a T-shirt, and the awe-struck admiration of your friends.
Those were heady days.
During my junior and senior high school years, I often remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table during the afternoon eating her favorite dish—macaroni covered with cooked tomatoes—while she read a Harlequin romance novel.
Wondering what she found so compelling in those books, one day I picked one up and started to read. I didn’t get very far before I threw it down in disgust. “How awful,” I said to myself, “how can anyone enjoy reading that stuff?” That incident not-withstanding, watching mother gain so much satisfaction from her books may have had an influence on me, for I have read many books, written four, and have hundreds of volumes in my small library.
Besides his full-time job working for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, my dad held a part-time job delivering packages for the Berry Company. One day he came home with a large, black plastic bag after finishing his route. I wondered, what could it be, a returned delivery, perhaps? From inside the smelly bag, he pulled out the largest garter snake I had ever seen. Mom freaked out and told him in no uncertain terms to “get rid of that thing right now!”
To my knowledge, garter snakes were supposed to be small and harmless, for they are not constrictors, nor do they have teeth, fangs, or poison. But this was a huge monster of a reptile; I have never seen another one even close to that size. So I thought this must be an anaconda for it was over six feet long and about two inches thick around the middle. Being so large it also had a nasty bite—as dad found out when it bit him and drew blood! Sadly, on orders from mom, we had to grant it liberty. We released it in a tall grassy field a short distance away.
Mothers have an unreasoning prejudice against large snakes.
We are in garter snake country and never saw any that large, so I had to look it up!
It turns out there is the Giant Garter Snake, and their size ranges from 37-65 inches. Amazing!
I love garter snakes! They help keep the garden free of slugs and other nasties.
I never heard of the giant garter snake. Wikipedia says it’s rare, and lives mostly in “the wetlands of central California.” Not in suburban New Jersey.
I remember being at lunch my freshman year of high school, and as it neared its end, I heard the older kids saying something about President Kennedy. As I sat in my Latin 2 class the principal came over the PA announcing JFK had been assassinated.
Yes, that’s a thing no one can forget.