Clubius Incarnate

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 21 - My 4th Birthday

Chapter 21 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, relieved it’s not a rainy day, we celebrate my 4th birthday in Almendinger Park. Some of my mom’s behavior towards me is beginning to push my buttons. But I have a great day pretending with Molly and the other kids at my party as we journey to the Moon and later Mars, where we must be friendly with ugly Martians to protect the Earth from invasion. Molly has another fall off the merry-go-round but we manage to keep it under wraps.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 20 - Spring

Chapter 20 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, that magical first day of spring that feels different after a long winter. I feel it, and it energizes me, and my family. I am drawn to the backyard and that special spruce tree and somehow get Molly to join me for a very close encounter of a different sort than we’re used to.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 19 - Molly's 4th Birthday

Chapter 19 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, I'm hanging out with other neighborhood kids at my best friend Molly’s 4th birthday party, in her parents’ split level house with all the kids round the table in the dining room and all the grownups up in the living room. Conversation in both circles turns to the news of the day, and this older kid Ricky brings up the issue of “nucular” (nuclear) bombs, “radiation” and “Commies”, and the rest of us kids try to process our fears.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 18 - Christmas

Chapter 18 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, my recollections of the party on Christmas eve with my grandma and grandpa putting on a bit of a show and my dad lending his voice (he always loved to sing). Then Christmas morning with my “Aunt Pat” (I thought that was her name, I didn’t understand the concept of having an “aunt” yet), providing a buffer and running commentary for me vis a vis the “grownups”, which though she sometimes seemed like one of them, I knew she was more like me only older. It all culminates in me opening my presents, my most favorite thing in the world to do.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 17 - Westwood Court

Chapter 17 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I am reintroduced to my grandparents, my “Aunt Pat”, and their very interesting house on Westwood Court in Binghamton New York.  

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 16 - Roomette

Chapter 16 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My mom and dad take me and my baby brother on an overnight train to visit my grandparents in Binghamton New York, which is my first time ever riding on a train, and doubly exciting because we have a small sleeping compartment.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 15 - Captain Kangaroo

Chapter 15 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I discover a show on television that I really like to watch and my mom teaches me how to tell time well enough to figure out when it is on every morning.  The show includes my favorite cartoon that features yet another young main character named “Tom”, who in this case has this amazing ability to transform himself into whatever he needs in the moment to solve his problems and continue with his adventures.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 14 - Cider Mill

Chapter 14 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. On a fall day, I am invited to go with Molly and her parents to the Dexter Cider Mill for wonderful cider and donuts and Molly and I do our imagination play in the car and in the middle of the stream by the Mill. Along the way words kids and adults should and shouldn’t say are discussed and I get a sense of Molly’s dad and mom and their family dynamic.

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 13 - Tom Swift

Chapter 13 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My dad reads to me every night before bed, and draws from a number of adventure stories featuring adventuresome boys like Treasure Island, and more recently our just finished Tom Sawyer.  This brings up the dilemma of what to read next, and Dad remembers the Tom Swift books I got for a birthday present, and he lets me pick out one of them out to read. 

Clubius Incarnate Chapter 12 - Television

Chapter 12 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960.  My dad manages to get a small used black and white television, and a new form of electronic media, called by some the “boob tube”, enters our household.