vegetarianism, and career choice.
and how his father was an evangelical minister
and the day his father said to me: "I'm going to take you to a place
where a man is going to heal you without the use of a knife"
and not quite understanding the concept, but eventually going with
Bruce and his parents to a big assembly hall in Newark
and enjoying the spirited gospel singing of an all black choir
and getting in a long line and walking toward the front of the hall
and the minister, who had been preaching, stopping to put his hand on
my head and saying some words which I don't recall
and getting back to my seat and hearing Bruce ask his father for some
money so that he and I could get chinese food from the take-out
across the street.
-Many years later, I read in a local newspaper that Bruce and his
brother had been arrested with two other men. They were accused of
kidnaping a young woman, and holding her captive in an apartment for
several days while repeatedly raping and sodomizing her.
my best friend John
and learning that I was born the same year that Ghandi died
and thinking aloud to John that perhaps I was the Mahatma's
reincarnate
and John saying to me: "If that's true, then Ghandi's soul has
regressed."
-I think he may have actually said "digressed," but then we were
very young - and yes, John was my best friend.
vegetarianism
and how I abstained from meat for three months [John and Yoko were
doing it, you know]
and stopping at a hot dog wagon and getting a strange look from the
proprietor when I asked for "onions on a bun"
and my longing for White Castle hamburgers finally getting the better
of me.
-I guess John was right. Ghandi could probably have withstood such
temptation.
wanting to be many things when I grew up:
a doctor - one of my doctors had given me a surgical mask. I used
to put it on before making incisions in my Jerry Mahoney
ventriloquist dummy. After removing some of Jerry's stuffing,
I would sew him up with my mother's needle and thread;
a priest - I once had an alter set up in the living room and would sit
there and pray while my mother and father watched
Milton Berle prance around in a dress;
Elvis - I had nearly perfected the nose twitch and lip curl;
a lawyer - I used to watch Perry Mason and the Defenders on TV
[Does anyone know if the Defenders has ever been
shown in rerun?]
-As it turned out, after renting forks lifts for a year after college,
and then spending several years as a commercial artist, I did become a
lawyer. I wish now that I had thought more seriously about becoming Elvis.
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