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Clubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 27 - MargieChapter 27 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, Mom and dad go out for the evening to play Bridge, and interesting game played with that “deck” of cards. So Margie comes over to babysit and I get a chance to ask her some questions that I can’t figure out myself and haven’t found anyone else to ask. She also introduces me to Rock and Roll.
2024-12-2131 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 26 - WiffenpoofChapter 26 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, dad has a bad day after having a “fight” with mom about grapefruit juice. But at bedtime he still sings the usual three songs to my brother and I, tonight including “The Whiffenpoof Song”, which brings out the emotions he usually doesn’t share. I ponder the issues between grownup men and women, along with the issues between my dad and mom in particu
2024-10-0823 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 25 - Play SchoolChapter 25 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, after that bad day at the “nursery school”, mom and dad pony up the precious funds to send me to Towsley Play School, and it works out much better for me. The place is bigger, the other kids are more fun, and their array of toys is spectacular!
2024-07-1437 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 24 - Nursery SchoolChapter 24 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, it’s my first day in this strange new place called “nursery school”, where my mom hopes I will have a good time playing with the other kids and can prepare for starting kindergarten next fall.
2024-06-0336 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 23 - The SwatChapter 23 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, I am impatient and get mad at my mom for not tying my shoe laces, and use a swear word in my frustration. Then my dad “swats” me on my bottom, and I try to process the fact that he “spanked” me, something I cannot recall ever happening to me before, and something with a whole range of problematic implications to my rules of...
2024-05-2025 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 22 - Allmendinger ParkChapter 22 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, my mom decides I’m old enough to run free in the park across the street from our house, as long as she is sitting in the middle of the park and can see me off in the distance, the next step in my development as a “free range” kid. I explore every venue of the place and interact with all the other...
2024-04-3035 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 21 - My 4th BirthdayChapter 21 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, relieved it’s not a rainy day, we celebrate my 4th birthday in Almendinger Park. Some of my mom’s behavior towards me is beginning to push my buttons. But I have a great day pretending with Molly and the other kids at my party as we journey to the Moon and later Mars, where we must be friendly with ugly Martians to p...
2024-03-2853 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 20 - SpringChapter 20 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, that magical first day of spring that feels different after a long winter. I feel it, and it energizes me, and my family. I am drawn to the backyard and that special spruce tree and somehow get Molly to join me for a very close encounter of a different sort than we’re used to.
2024-02-1633 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 19 - Molly's 4th BirthdayChapter 19 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, I'm hanging out with other neighborhood kids at my best friend Molly’s 4th birthday party, in her parents’ split level house with all the kids round the table in the dining room and all the grownups up in the living room. Conversation in both circles turns to the news of the day, and this older kid Ricky brings up the issue of “...
2024-02-0733 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 18 - ChristmasChapter 18 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, my recollections of the party on Christmas eve with my grandma and grandpa putting on a bit of a show and my dad lending his voice (he always loved to sing). Then Christmas morning with my “Aunt Pat” (I thought that was her name, I didn’t understand the concept of having an “aunt” yet), providing a buffer and running commentary for me vis a v...
2024-01-2359 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 17 - Westwood CourtChapter 17 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I am reintroduced to my grandparents, my “Aunt Pat”, and their very interesting house on Westwood Court in Binghamton New York.
2023-08-1855 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 16 - RoometteChapter 16 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My mom and dad take me and my baby brother on an overnight train to visit my grandparents in Binghamton New York, which is my first time ever riding on a train, and doubly exciting because we have a small sleeping compartment.
2023-08-1849 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 15 - Captain KangarooChapter 15 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I discover a show on television that I really like to watch and my mom teaches me how to tell time well enough to figure out when it is on every morning. The show includes my favorite cartoon that features yet another young main character named “Tom”, who in this case has this amazing ability to transform himself into whatever he needs in the moment to so...
2022-12-0626 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 14 - Cider MillChapter 14 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. On a fall day, I am invited to go with Molly and her parents to the Dexter Cider Mill for wonderful cider and donuts and Molly and I do our imagination play in the car and in the middle of the stream by the Mill. Along the way words kids and adults should and shouldn’t say are discussed and I get a sense of Mo...
2022-11-1428 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 13 - Tom SwiftChapter 13 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My dad reads to me every night before bed, and draws from a number of adventure stories featuring adventuresome boys like Treasure Island, and more recently our just finished Tom Sawyer. This brings up the dilemma of what to read next, and Dad remembers the Tom Swift books I got for a birthday present, and he lets me pick out one of them out to read...
2022-11-0224 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 12 - TelevisionChapter 12 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My dad manages to get a small used black and white television, and a new form of electronic media, called by some the “boob tube”, enters our household.
2022-10-2122 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 11 - CooperChapter 11 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My mom and dad take me to a grownup party across the street at Molly’s house one evening, and in that milieu I see my mom in action, mixing it up with a couple of the male friends of my dad’s. Also my various names, proper or nick, become an issue that my mom decides needs to be resolved.
2022-10-1225 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 10- BrotherChapter 10 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. That baby my mom and dad kept talking about finally came out of my mom somehow, but I balk at going to the hospital and instead play at Molly’s house awaiting this event that is way beyond my comprehension. My mom and dad finally return from the hospital bearing that tiny human being that they call “David” who they tell me is my “brother”. His arrival...
2022-10-0222 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 9 - HiddenChapter 9 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. At Molly’s suggestion we hide in the spruce tree in our backyard where we can see out but nobody can see us. It seems like the perfect secret hiding place for us away from all the crazy world of the grownups and the baby in my mom’s tummy that is about to come out.
2022-09-2626 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 8 - DirtChapter 8 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I join my dad who drives our car on the roads of Ann Arbor to the gravel pit, where he fills two trash cans with dirt for my dirt pile in our backyard. On the way I learn about traffic lights and fences, and after we get home I get to work with my new dirt.
2022-09-1822 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter7 - BaseballChapter 7 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. A baseball game on the radio down in the basement between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees draws my mom and dad into conversation about loyalties and what they do and do not have in common, and puts me “at the plate” and on the spot to show off my batting skills with plastic bat and wiffle ball. My mom brags about her baseb...
2022-08-3030 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 6 - Molly’s RoomChapter 6 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Molly and I return from our tricycle adventure with dad and the big storm at the stadium to her very complicated house to have cocoa with her mom and my dad. Becoming bored with the adult conversation, she and I head upstairs to her wonderful attic room to do some “pretend” play, and defend the fort from the approaching enemy cars until calamity strikes us.
2022-08-2122 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 5 - TricycleChapter 5 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Dad takes Molly and me on an adventure on our tricycles to the Michigan Stadium, where we have to shelter from a fast moving thunderstorm.
2022-08-1429 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 4 - My 3rd BirthdayChapter 4 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Mom is relieved that it isn't going to rain so we can have my party in the park. Molly and I have new experiences on the merry-go-round. And finally I open my presents and figure out the mystery of that tricycle in the attic.
2022-08-0237 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 3 - BasementChapter 3 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Later that rainy day, I do another version of my pirate and goodguy story in the larger pretend geography of the basement, and dad tells me more about what he did in the war.
2022-07-2435 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 2 - InteriorsChapter 2 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. On a rainy morning, I explore all the different places and spaces inside our house and make a discovery in a place I had never been in before.
2022-07-2429 minClubius IncarnateClubius Incarnate Chapter 1 - DubiousChapter 1 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In the days before my 3rd birthday I finally decided to start really talking.
2022-07-0827 minClubius IncarnateIntroductionThe introduction to my autobiographical novel of growing up from ages 3 to 5 in the late 1950s in a Midwest college town, giving you some context of my life and addressing the challenge of telling a story from the point of view of such a young (though precocious) person.
2022-06-2708 min
Two Inch Heels - An autobiographical novelTwo Inch Heels Chapter 6 - ChurChapter 6 of my autobiographical novel of my 11 week odyssey backpacking through Western Europe in 1973 at age 18, written and read by me, Cooper Zale. My new travel partner Jack and I cast our fate to the travel goddess and hitchhike from Munich south to Switzerland, where I meet two intriguing young women from Norway and their male travel companions and have a brief run in with the police. Contains some adult language and drug and sexual references.
2021-11-2537 minTwo Inch Heels - An autobiographical novelTwo Inch Heels Chapter 5 - MunichChapter 5 of my autobiographical novel of my 11 week odyssey backpacking through Western Europe in 1973 at age 18, written and read by me, Cooper Zale. After my long journey by train and boat from London, I arrive in Munich ready to be greeted by familiar faces, but instead find a different challenge. Some adult language and sexual references.
2021-11-2522 minTwo Inch Heels - An autobiographical novelTwo Inch Heels Chapter 4 - SoloChapter 4 of my autobiographical novel of my 11 week odyssey backpacking through Western Europe in 1973 at age 18, written and read by me, Cooper Zale. I leave Angie at our little hotel in London and head off alone to start the rest of the journey, still with great ambivalence and trepidation. Contains some adult language and sexual references.
2021-11-2435 minTwo Inch Heels - An autobiographical novelTwo Inch Heels Chapter 3 - AngieChapter 3 of my autobiographical novel of my 11 week odyssey backpacking through Western Europe in 1973 at age 18, written and read by me, Cooper Zale. In today’s episode, Angie and I say goodbye to the Clays in Oxford, and head to Salisbury, where Angie finally shares her decision not to continue our planned European journey. Contains some adult language and sexual references.
2021-11-2429 minTwo Inch Heels - An autobiographical novelTwo Inch Heels Chapter 2 - EnglandChapter 2 of my autobiographical novel of my 11 week odyssey backpacking through Western Europe in 1973 at age 18, written and read by me, Cooper Zale. Angie and I actually get on that plane and fly to England, land at Heathrow Airport in London and have a stumbling start finding somewhere to stay and launching our planned extensive journey together. Contains some adult language.
2021-11-2330 min