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Peter Johnson's avatar

Greg, I'm embarrassed and proud to say that it is very loosely autobiographical. My father was a character. "Embarrassed" because I was, to say the least, a handful in my youth; proud, because I I evolved . . . a bit.

I just finished editing it. I had downloaded a less clean version.

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Judith Schaner's avatar

Ingenious mix of fact and fiction. I remember that day. I was scared to death!

Thanks for coming to our rescue today!

Love,

Your little sis

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Peter Johnson's avatar

Yeah, Dad was a handful.

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Jeff Nicholas's avatar

I can feel this story and the characters. Things I heard when I was a kid. The bravado. Something powerful here in everything.

Re: your comment to Greg. I like thinking of you as this character when you were younger. There’s a bit of Bukowski there. But glad to know you now

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Greg Boyd's avatar

Your story brilliantly captures the seething hot mess of unfiltered and unrestrained teenage masculinity (that is so useful in fighting wars and so unproductive in accomplishing anything else) that some men of all ages are never able to leave behind. The story reminds me of... well, pretty much everything.

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Sydney Lea's avatar

So many aspects of ‘toxic masculinity’ (o, sincerest apologies, JD Touch Hole— not) included in short compass. Bravo!

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Peter Johnson's avatar

Yeah, Syd, our gender in many ways, is a big disappointment. Any woman I know over 55 has given up dating.

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Thomas Molitor's avatar

why do men under explain and women over explain? /

"she-laborating," as my brother-in-lawlessness calls it.

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