Clubius Incarnate
An imagined “memoir”, with fictional details that I believe are consistent with what really happened, of my life as a young child, growing up in the late 1950s in the progressive university town of Ann Arbor Michigan in the U.S. Midwest. My challenge is to try to capture the emerging world of a precocious three to five-year-old kid and his interactions with his peers and the adult world. The story starts just before my third birthday, in April of 1958, when I am just beginning to really talk.
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Episodes
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
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.
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Chapter 11 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 to a grownup party across the street at Molly’s house one evening, and in that milieu I see my mom in action, mixing it up with a couple of the male friends of my dad’s. Also my various names, proper or nick, become an issue that my mom decides needs to be resolved.
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Chapter 10 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. That baby my mom and dad kept talking about finally came out of my mom somehow, but I balk at going to the hospital and instead play at Molly’s house awaiting this event that is way beyond my comprehension. My mom and dad finally return from the hospital bearing that tiny human being that they call “David” who they tell me is my “brother”. His arrival as a new member of our little family causes unexpressed concerns on my part, but also the beginnings of a possible connection as well.
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Chapter 9 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. At Molly’s suggestion we hide in the spruce tree in our backyard where we can see out but nobody can see us. It seems like the perfect secret hiding place for us away from all the crazy world of the grownups and the baby in my mom’s tummy that is about to come out.
Sunday Sep 18, 2022
Sunday Sep 18, 2022
Chapter 8 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 join my dad who drives our car on the roads of Ann Arbor to the gravel pit, where he fills two trash cans with dirt for my dirt pile in our backyard. On the way I learn about traffic lights and fences, and after we get home I get to work with my new dirt.
Monday Aug 29, 2022
Monday Aug 29, 2022
Chapter 7 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. A baseball game on the radio down in the basement between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees draws my mom and dad into conversation about loyalties and what they do and do not have in common, and puts me “at the plate” and on the spot to show off my batting skills with plastic bat and wiffle ball. My mom brags about her baseball prowess and actually shows off some of her alleged skill by snagging a line drive.
Saturday Aug 20, 2022
Saturday Aug 20, 2022
Chapter 6 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. Molly and I return from our tricycle adventure with dad and the big storm at the stadium to her very complicated house to have cocoa with her mom and my dad. Becoming bored with the adult conversation, she and I head upstairs to her wonderful attic room to do some “pretend” play, and defend the fort from the approaching enemy cars until calamity strikes us.
Saturday Aug 13, 2022
Saturday Aug 13, 2022
Chapter 5 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. Dad takes Molly and me on an adventure on our tricycles to the Michigan Stadium, where we have to shelter from a fast moving thunderstorm.
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Chapter 4 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. Mom is relieved that it isn't going to rain so we can have my party in the park. Molly and I have new experiences on the merry-go-round. And finally I open my presents and figure out the mystery of that tricycle in the attic.
Saturday Jul 23, 2022
Saturday Jul 23, 2022
Chapter 3 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. Later that rainy day, I do another version of my pirate and goodguy story in the larger pretend geography of the basement, and dad tells me more about what he did in the war.