An Awful Short Story

Stanman,
Thanx for your kind words.
I'm working on another story (among several others,) called, "Daddy got Paid to Cuss." It's quite a bit longer. Here is a preview -- if you're interested:

Introduction

The community where I grew up (Harbison Canyon) was very small: about 150 families and less than 500 people. Though situated just 25 miles from the West Coast of California and, perhaps, 20 miles from the Mexican border as the crow flies, it contained most of the elements that make American rural life so enduring: family, friends and neighbors – even if “family” was nothing more binding than being friends and neighbors to each other.

These sketches are remembrances of a time when “all-the-world” (limited to my inexperience,) was new and fresh, and when life held infinite possibilities. It was the only point in my life that even Time itself grew sweeter by the day while bitterness was measured by the mere moment.

I was one of those children slow to begin reading. But once I got the hang of it, I streaked ten and more years ahead of my age group. I don’t know if this is reflective of the work that follows, but like the tale of “The Hare and the Tortuous,” I fear I may now be years or decades behind my college graduated, more educated peers.

During the middle grades of my elementary education, “Dick and Jane” were left far in the past as Cervantes, Cooper, Dickens, Dumas, Hawthorn, Hugo, Irving, Kipling, Shakespeare, Stevenson, Tennyson, and Twain split equal times with Mad magazine.

I hope this work approaches the standards of the latter.

Chapters:

Introduction: The Community where I Grew up
Prolog: It’s so Sad about Pathos
1: Forgotten Birthdays
2: All the Things that Nibbles Ate
3: Jesus Christ on a Tote Goat
4: Donkey Balls
5: The Goat Lady
6: The Thing that Ate Nibbles
7: Cut Corners
8: Auntie with the White Hair
9: Sink or Swim
10: The Woolley Factor
11: So I just closed one Eye…
12: The Gardener
13: One Little Indian
14: We’re Depressed
15: Dogs (and Pussies,) Galore
16: You ain’t Bad -- just Criminal
17: Daddy got paid to Cuss!
Epilog: They’re only Words