Category: nostalgia

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1989

“What is this? ’80s music day?” “Actually, it’s 1989, all day baby!” “Well, I lived through this music once. Why are you forcing me to do it again?” This was a conversation this morning between me and my wife, who tends to like her own combination of music regardless of decade or individual years, while … Continue reading 1989

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Significant Details

“Life is not significant details, illuminated by a flash, fixed forever. Photographs are.” ~Susan Sontag When we look at photographs of ourselves as children we can sometimes laugh and talk about how we felt at the time, but do we honestly remember or are our “memories” mere byproducts of our parents telling us about the … Continue reading Significant Details

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Paper Footballs

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There is an art to making a paper football. Believe me. It starts with a fresh sheet of unwrinkled paper and a strong thumb. And it ends with a perfect isoscles triangle that is firm but not too firm, and may or may not have designs on it. Oh, and in between it is an unparalleled journey.

We used to make them in auto mech class, when we were supposed to be learning about cam shafts, pistons, and axles. Instead we were at the big wooden table in the back of the class with unwrinkled sheets of paper and our own dreams of those little paper footballs.

It all started with a fold, near the edge but away from it too, the perfect length, the long way, and then a tear following the fold all the way to the bottom of the page. Tearing on the fold made for a better football, in my opinion, but some preferred to use scissors. I took true pride in beating them.

Then the real fun began, the raveling of the spine. By this time, or course, Mr. Benton, the auto mech teacher, would finally start to notice that half his class still didn’t know how brakes worked. But he still wouldn’t come to the back of the room, so we continued the raveling. Continue reading “Paper Footballs”