Over the years I’ve been called by a number of nicknames: Tommy, Little Tee, T.J., etc. Two of the worst involved being tongue-tied and the other was about a television show called “Kung Fu.” But it can all be traced back to one singular event. It was the day I introduced myself to my next-door…

Adam and I were playing in the woods around a cluster of Redwood trees, we had named, “Darby’s Castle.” It was play off the old song, our last name and the fact that the trees created a natural fort, if you knew how to get inside. It was situated on the right side of the…

Perhaps it was to help curb the cost of heating or maybe Mom had been visited by aliens, either way she decided one afternoon to wallpaper our bathroom in aluminum foil. Yeah, I know — weird. She didn’t take very much time in planning it out. She jus’ gathered together supplies on hand like some…

As difficult as it is to admit…bad things of no fault of our own sometimes happened to us kids as we were growing up. One of those bad things was having been raped by a mentally ill man as I was delivering newspapers. I will not name the family of this man, as I don’t…

It was a conversation between Dad and Mom. They were angry at the fact that a neighborhood committee had given them a list of approved colors they could paint the house and that each color had a fee of some sort attached to it. As I recall the main complaint was that this group had…

My guard was up as I had been ambushed once and locked in the display case along Del Norte High School’s Senior Hall. I didn’t want it to happen again. However my vigilance didn’t pay off. Without warning I was jumped and dragged out of the locker room where I had jus’ stripped down, preparing…

Senior Hall of Del Norte High School ran from the main entrance to the doorways leading outside, jus’ pass the girl’s locker rooms and gymnasium. Midway down the hall and in between the entrances into the boy’s gym was a large glass trophy case, mounted to the wall. P.E. for me was my very first…

It would be three weeks before my cousin Billy would arrive from Washington State. He had already told me that he planned to out-fish me while he was visiting. To keep that from happening, I decided to rig our fishing spot. Everyday until he arrived I took a can of corn with me to the…

When we went to visit our Aunt and Uncle, we also stopped at Don and Evelyn Chisum’s home. It was a post-Victorian building with three bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs and a master bedroom, another full bathroom, kitchen, dining and living room on the bottom floor. During one visit, Dad went upstairs to use…

Mom and dad were going to a function at the airbase. For the event mom went out and purchased a bright red dress. They left the house at around six that evening and returned before jus’ 11 o’clock that night. Both looked nice as they left for the evening. Dad was first through the door.…