[photo by Randy Gordon-Gatica] Along with the virus, New York has been invaded by “the real” — an elusive concept. I was telling an old school New Yorker about an encounter I had at Coney Island once. Super hot day. My children we’re little. I was taking them on all the kiddie rides -- cars, … Continue reading The Real
One night in the mid-90s, I walked into an ATM on 23rd and 6th Avenue where a man was sprawled out on the floor. It was two in the morning. His wallet was flipped open a few feet away from his open hand. He was looking up at the ceiling and seemed okay aside from … Continue reading Billy’s Topless
It's one of those days at work where I'm absolutely paralyzed. Hogtied. Brainfreeze. I can't do anything. So what do I do? I go to Google Street View. I take a drive in my childhood neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. Take a look at the old house. There it is. There's the lawn I mowed a … Continue reading Manhattan Academy
I was miserable. Living with my cousin in a cheap-ass apartment complex. Just living there in that shitty dump, I felt like I had hit the underside of the bottom. Something about those places always just feels like you’re in hell. They’re so cheap. Feels like you’re inside a cardboard box. They all have the … Continue reading Cedarstone
Memphis - 2005 A few years ago before Cathy dumped me, I was down in a swamp in Mississippi. I popped this squirrel out on a long branch, and it dropped like a wet rag into a clump of honeysuckle and briars so thick it was like a wall. I got down on my hands … Continue reading The Voodoo Stick
THE MAGNOLIA UNDER GLASS Lobutcha, Mississippi - 2003 Okay. Guess I should say something. The traffic outside sounded like surf. A maid was pushing a squeaky cart down the hall. Someone was filling an ice bucket. Suddenly she twisted from beneath him, ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. The rings scraped and the … Continue reading The Magnolia Under Glass
My father tells the following story of some of his adventures as a high school-aged boy in the late 1940s. He grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, a small town in the middle of the state built around a square. I’m gonna tell you about something that happened just about one block off the square to … Continue reading Pool Halls and Mayor’s Courts
