After four days of getting to know Pop during a transnational road trip, our intensive "captive audience" journey was nearing its end. Ahead of us lay Calhoun County, Pop's home turf, in a very minimally populated part of the Florida Panhandle. There are offices in San Francisco that have more employees than the entire county's … Continue reading Pop’s Home Turf
Tag: road trips
Meeting Pop: Reunion on a Transnational Road Trip
After thirty years' absence, I was finally off to meet Pop for the first time since my parents' divorce when I was three years old. Flying to meet Pop was in itself an experience. He lives in the Florida Panhandle about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. West, in fact, of a line that cuts off … Continue reading Meeting Pop: Reunion on a Transnational Road Trip
Pop Out (Dad, Part One: A Fatherless Childhood)
Throughout my childhood there was a recurring theme of unbalance, of the idea that I needed a father figure. Ma tried to keep men in her life for my sake on many occasions, often actively seeking ways for me to have a male influence for me. In my teen years I suppose I had a … Continue reading Pop Out (Dad, Part One: A Fatherless Childhood)
Friendly Delivery
Every young teenager anxiously awaits the age of 16. It's the age you can get a driver's license. It's the age that represents freedom. At the beginning of the school year I started getting pulled from Physical Education classes to attend Driver's Ed. I hadn't really expected that, or planned for it. It just happened. … Continue reading Friendly Delivery
Forging a New Life in California
1976 was the year we moved to Northern California. I was a wee kid, but have vivid memories of that year... I was born in 1970 in the lush and glorious international destination of Flint, Michigan, but my parents' divorce led Ma and me to Denver by the time I was a year old. At … Continue reading Forging a New Life in California
A Blessing in Disguise
In my nineteen or so years (at the time), I had never really been to California's Central Valley. I'd been through it, but never intentionally to it. Still, a trip there turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A few times in my high school years I'd driven with Ma to Disneyland, taking the … Continue reading A Blessing in Disguise