Heads up! The next chapter of my childhood memoir KID STUFF has now hit the website. Another long slog through the latter half of my Junior year at Ashdown High, it’s entitled simply LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. Easier said than done…

This chapter describes how a feckless romantic teenager tried to stop adoring Annette Funicello. It was like that ancient song by Teresa Brewer (my father’s favorite singer): “Let me go, lover / Let me be / Set me free / From your spell…” But the beautiful TV star continued to haunt my heart. I was caught in a trap, a vicious loop of futile passion, despair and depression, platonic attraction to others’ beauty, bitter loneliness for a brother, futile passion, etc.

Trying to quit my addiction to Annette cold turkey by loving everybody platonically with no exceptions, simply aroused suspicions of perversion and didn’t work anyway. The only respites from my insane possession came with an atomic adventure in Atlantic City (the high point in my high school career), a trip to Texarkana for my first and only date (kissless), and a few days of clean fun at 4-H Camp with a brief eye-opening experience.

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