Memories from a Shoebox

Memory is more than a dustbin of time, stuffed with yesterday's trash. Rather, memory is a glorious grab bag of the past from which one can at leisure pluck bittersweet experiences of times gone by and relive them. (Hal Boyle).
Here are my memories of growing up in a small Northern Maine Town.
Some of the stories have appeared as tales in earlier books or regional publications. Some of my eBook stories are appearing for the first time in print.
I include a few "Culture" stories highlighting the change in social attitudes between then and now.
Most of the stories are firsthand accounts of personal experiences. Others, tales told to me by older boys: Tom Huggard, Kempton Smith, and Billy Putnam. I cannot vouch for their accuracy. Putnam, for instance, swore that a man's sperm traveled about a woman's bloodstream delivering instructions to various body parts so she could build a proper egg. He called the phenomenon Spermocity. Tom Huggard swore that a boy who lingers too long in his genital area risked blindness. Kempton Smith advised us that "Girls won't get pregnant if they jump up and down after having sex."
So much for sex education in the 1940's.
Everything else is about Ghosts, my close friends, or me.
As James Wirthlin said, "Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid." Maybe he should have added that they are often embellished, to make them more interesting.
These are some of the most vivid recollections from the shoebox of my mind.
Bob Fields. Proud member of The Charles Street Gang.

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