Miscellaneous

This story happened on July 24, 1985. This day is a state holiday celebrating the day the Mormon pioneers arrived in Salt Lake City in 1847. Our family had a tradition of attending the annual parade along with thousands of people who line the streets in Salt Lake. ​My parents lived a couple of miles away…

I thought I was pretty clever, outsmarting my parents that way. It was summertime in 1950s LA. My parents had a bunch of little kids and not much money. Whatcha gonna do for fun?We would wait til the sun started to set, then put on our jammies, grab our pillows and blankies, and pile into the…

When our oldest son, Paul, was in the fifth grade, his teacher gave the class an unthinkable assignment. He told the students to look around the classroom and identify the person whom they least liked. After they had identified the student, he had them approach that student and tell them that they didn’t like him…

A little boy sat on the floor in the living room, surrounded by tiny wheels, spindles, springs, clock hands, and an empty casing…what a mess!​Or was it? ​That little boy was my father. Grandma told me that nothing mechanical in the house was safe from his curious fingers. They came to an agreement, he could take…

In March 1994, I was invited to speak at a conference in Michigan and ended up staying over the weekend. I remember lying on my bed Saturday afternoon reading a newspaper article about John Kruk, the first basemen for the Philadelphia Phillies. This article mentioned that during Spring training he had been hit hard enough…

You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen a Red Dog race around and around in a big circle, leap in the air for joy, butt a few heads, then plop down in an exhausted heap for at least 30 seconds before jumping up and doing it again.​I didn’t even know how much I was missing…

One of my life’s most bizarre events happened while I was living in Tennessee. I was a grad student and working the night shift at a local hospital, so I did not actually witness the event myself! I am relying on what my first wife, Carol, told me (although I did eventually meet the rodent…