Lessons in Growing Up

Sunday, March 25, 2007

This past week, I received from Daedalus, my favorite discount book dealer, a volume entitled "Growing Up: A Classic American Childhood" and subtitled "What Kids should Know Before they Leave Home." Neither of my New York parents drew up lists of what my little sister Beverly and I ought to know before leaving the confines of "The Empire State." In retrospect, I think it would've been a very good idea, not only drawing up such a list but actually showing six-year-younger sister Bev and me such intricate techniques as balancing my new check book; taking my dirty clothes into town and stuffing them all into the nearest washing machine; (this was long before each and every home had its own washing machine plugged into a wall in the basement); elementary manners when escorting a young woman to a restaurant and a movie, then back to her dorm. That would have spared her and me a lot of embarrassment.

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