Childhood Memories – Crasstalk

QOTD: Memories of Your First Car

Whether or not you are a car nut, your first car meant a lot to you. Thinking back about it brings forth memories of cruising with your pals, that unfortunate fender bender, and your first run-in with the law.

My first car was an Isuzu Impulse. It was an Italian-designed Japanese hatchback. The cassette deck had a bitchin’ equalizer that lit up like a spaceship at night. Joe Isuzu went on TV and claimed that it was faster than a speeding bullet. I drove it during high school and as the Berlin Wall fell a half a world away, I cruised along the Pacific Coast Highway, listening to Jesus Jones. It had two bumper stickers– Public Enemy and Jerry Brown for President. Continue reading →

Are Year Round Sports Good for Your Kids?

If I think back hard enough, I can still feel the stinging in my hands, hear the ringing in my ears.

Growing up in northwestern Pennsylvania, those attacks on your senses were something you became accustomed to if you played baseball at a competitive level. I graduated high school in 1997, on the very fringe of the movement to turn youth sports into a year-round, practice-til-you-drop affair. Continue reading →

Growing up with ADHD

I have struggled to find the courage to sit down and expel this story from where it lay, lodged deep down under some or other memories that I’m more comfortable with. I have told myself that this story would be difficult to write simply because of how not terrible the experience was as a whole. I believe the truth is that I’m uncertain of how this story will sound when it’s in print. What light may shed on these relics from my past. I sit here now determined to excavate that which I have long sought to inter.

I documented recently that I am a High School dropout, a fact I’ve been rather proud of lately. I especially enjoy flaunting this when someone bewails the matter of their student loans. I actually have a commenter from the other site to thank for this change in my outlook. Previously I carried my status as an embarrassment to myself, my family, and my country. All of which I blame on The Education System, and I’ll tell you why. Continue reading →