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@ 27.055 MHz: Ad Astra; The Past As A Palimpsest Of Emergent Interests
Before kindergarten, I pretended to be a cowboy
with a dime-store hat and a snap-bang capgun; but
no knowledge or experience of a working ranch.
Then, in fourth grade, it was Astronomy---stars, planets,
telescopes, but no knowledge of a working observatory.
But a neighbor's amateur psycho-babble, in tiresome repetition,
caused my parents to fear the onset of obsession, a
possibility of becoming like Leslie, on the southward
end of our street (west side of a small village, the
center of a rural township): Leslie, an adolescent
scholar of Shakespeare; Leslie, with those long
auburn curls, and a preference for boot-flare jeans and
black socks instead of shoes whenever the weather
permitted. In high school, I was verbally bullied:
"four-eyes," "fairy," "freak," and "faggot" (oh
yes, most especially and often "faggot"). Freshman
year at college, with many conversations on the c.b.
(no matter how often and frequently disparaged parentally)
during that all too short precedent summer; to which, add an
abiding interest in Poetry; polo shirts and baggy white
painter's pants; and, whenever possible, flip-flops or barefoot.
J-Called
