I write these essays now and then, when the mood strikes. Piecing together bits of the past is a great tonic when the petty present drives you crazy. The best essays often combine present and past, so the line between "memoir" and "journal" gets fuzzy. Sometimes names are changed; sometimes not. In general, I try not to embarrass anyone but myself. They are the "truth" as I remember it, through the filter of years. This list grows organically, with no attempt to be balanced about highs and lows.
Childhood: 1950s | Childhood: early 1960s | High School: mid 1960s | College: late 1960s | After college: 1970 | Green Valley Days: 1971-72 | First marriage: 1970s | Adventure years: 1980s | Disillusionment: turn of century
Walter T "Curly" Price
Apr 19, 1922 - Sept 22, 2005
Movie of Dad & Me Singing Old Green River Together [also: audio program]
Curly Singing "Embraceable You" (audio treasure, about 1946)
1948 - 1963 Defiance: when good girls go bad (3.14.06)
1953 & after: La-di-da Missouri (4.18.05)
1955: The Valentine (short QT movie, radio production) (2003)
1950s: Grade-school cafeterias (8.26.04)
1955: Spring ducklings (4.6.06)
1957: Brother & Sister (featuring Easter runway movie)
1956 or so: Remembering the beginning of 3-month summers (5.21.04)
1957: Bicycle Mayhem (7.23.00)
1957-ish Sound
of writing & smell of shirts (9.25.07)
Influences: Nancy Drew (2.11.00)
Song: The Irish Were Egyptians & Other Lullabies
1959-1963: New school, new Friends (3.4.00) (See also the short radio production "Remembering Charlotte, in the Rain" [2009])
1960 The book that changed my life: "Speedball Book of Lettering" (11.23.06)
Sixties Scholarship Girl (5.12.02)
Grandpa: Patterns That Please (10.31.2000)
Ewald (my other grandfather) (9.2.04)
1962: Midnight, I Confess (10.22.00)
1961 Future Corporate Leader (scripted in the drum & bugle corps) (1.22.00)
1961 Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Jack: Angels in An Adolescent Moment (2.2.06)
1963 A visit to the zoo (change in vocation) (9.7.04)
1963 Write of Passage (radio program) (8.6.08)
1964 The Best Way Out Is Through (it's 10th grade and Robert Frost is in the air) (Nov 2000)
1963-67: Smell of Onions Frying: short radio production (3.14.08), plus original text (4.14.00)
1963-67: Remembering Late Nights with My Mother (2.8.04)
1963-5: Confession of a Mean Girl, radio production (2.11.08) and original text (11.2.03)
1963-67: Red-Zone Anger: The Nun (5.19.06)
1966 Pre-Atkins Dieter (2.24.04)
1966 The Late Bloomer (6.30.01, revised 4.15.05)
1966 Wrong Moment for Silence (radio program) (7.25.08)
1966 A Mother-Daughter Moment (a religious vocation?) (3.23.06)
1967 Leaving Home... to a summer at Yale (8.27.07)
1967 The Freshman (8.28.07)
1967 Underarm shields (8.29.05)
1968: Unkissed (12.6.99)
1968 Why I Hate Card Games (8.29.07)
1969-70 Learning Notes: Senior Year (9.19.99)
1969-1978: Arc of Friendship with Trish (2.20.00)
1969 Bad date in Joliet (4.20.06)
AFTER COLLEGE: Dangling in Mid-Air
1970 Another Crappy Boyfriend (1.21.00)
1971: Quitting My First Real Job (4.5.01)
1971: The World in 1971 (9.5.04)
1965-1975 Remembering the Vietnam Era (8.25.04)
1971: Green Valley School Entries Index
1972: My Damn Wedding Cake (11.30.99)
1972-75: Married Drifter Part 1 (4.18.00) | Part 2 (4.19.00)
1975 Defiance (When Good Girls Go Bad), Part 2 (3.14.06)
1977: When Breaking Up Is Breaking Through (2.15.01)
1977: Rape Crisis Service (4.2.07)
1977: Behind the Glory (4.3.07)
1979-1994 Eulogy for a Fine Boss (11.30.05)
1979 Ignorance & Confidence: First Scuba Dive
1979/1986 Extreme Cold Crazy
1979 Defining Moment: Drift Dive
1980: Lobster Caper (4.10.07)
1986 Peak Performance: Trusting (skiing on Whiteface)
1980s Breathless: the Aerobics Era (Pat Drum Aerobics, Inc.) Part 1 Thinking Back to the Eighties | Part 2 How I Got Started with Pat | Part 3 Work As Friendship | Part 4 Pat's Website
1980's Rapidograph Retro (11.16.06)
TRAVEL. The 1990s were about some serious traveling. They are captured in the travel section.
1999 Lessons in Leadership
CAREER'S END: ANOTHER COMING OF AGE
2003 Career Disillusionment. Part 1 What is the story? (9.21.04)| Part 2 Trying not to delude myself (9.22.04) | Part 3 Great Dames vs Gray Flannel Suits (9.23.04) | Part 4 A revolutionary's deal with the devil, including subsequent progress on "Pandora" (9.24.04)
MORE
The Bead Collector. 1956, 1960s, 1990, 1992.
MILESTONES
1948 NOV: Born in St. Louis, Missouri
1951 NOV: Brother Thomas born
1954 SEP: Entered Kindergarten, Most Holy Rosary [Parochial] School, 3905 Clarence Ave, St Louis, MO 63115-2902
1957 JUN: Sister Ellen born
1959 OCT: Switched to Epiphany of Our Lord [Parochial] Grade School,6596 Smiley Avenue, St. Louis MO 63139
1959 NOV: Sister Kathleen born
1963 SEP: Entered Xavier High School for Girls, West Pine Blvd, St. Louis MO
1967 SEP: Entered Mundelein College, 6363 North Sheridan Rd, Chicago IL
1970 JUN: Graduated from Mundelein
1971 FEB: Left Chicago for Green Valley School, Orange City FL
1971 JUN: Left Florida for GVS branch near Roscoe NY
1972 SEP: Left GVS; married Paul; moved to Rochester NY
1973 SEP - 1975 JUN: Masters degree in Community Health, University of Rochester School of Medicine
1977 NOV: marriage to Paul breaks up
1978: began hanging out with Jim
1979 SEP: began work for Hillside Children's Center
1980 (or shortly thereafter) Became charter member of Pat Drum Aerobics Board of Directors
1986 AUG: bought my condo
1993 MAR: moved in with Jim when he broke his leg
1993 AUG: married Jim
2003 APR: started Cosmopolitan Productions with Maria Cristalli
2003 SEP: retired from Hillside
2005 SEP: Dad dies
