Clik here to view.
How Nixon’s Resignation Made Me A Self-Aware 4-Year-Old
President Richard Nixon delivering his resignation speech (cropped screen shot) ahead of impeachment over Watergate, abuse of power, August 8, 1974. (http://washingtonpost.com). In public domain. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Big Feet and Football Tryouts
Aerial view of refurbished fields (for track and field, football, softball and tennis) across from MVHS (and the Cross County Parkway), Mount Vernon, NY, circa 2012. (Google Maps) Three decades ago...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can Family and Friends Ever Understand The Why Behind a Memoir?
Front cover, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Charles M. Blow, September 23, 2014. (http://goodreads.com). I started reading New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Weak Legacy: The Acts of the Civil Rights Apostles at 50
The Acts of the Apostles (book cover), 1999. (http://books.google.com). Yesterday evening, I attended the eleventh annual Brown lecture hosted by the American Educational Research Association at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Out There In The World
Last week, my son went with his classmates on his first overnight trip without me or his mother, a middle school “camping” trip in the forests of Montgomery County, Maryland. He was gone fifty-two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Comedy of a Tragic Upbringing
John Leguizamo playing ‘Abuelo’ in Tales from a Ghetto Klown, PBS Arts Festival, July 2012. (http://www.pbs.org). Over New Year’s weekend, I watched John Leguizamo’s HBO comedy special Ghetto Klown...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pictures and Records
Me & Darren at gate to Nathan Hale ES playground, Mount Vernon, NY, February 1975. [At 425 South Sixth, we lived just two doors down from Nathan Hale and its playground area/parking lot.] (My...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and My Own Prison
East Library branch of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, before (the version I worked in) and after renovation, October 4, 2006 and September 25, 2011. (http://popcitymedia.com and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Kicking My Damsel-in-Distress Syndrome
Chivalry with a suit blazer, March 7, 2015. (http://genius.com)/ This week marked thirty-three years since the fight that led to a crush that led to me falling in love for the first time, via a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Didn’t We Never Have It All
Whitney Houston, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” (released August 1987) Single 45rpm, from 2nd Whitney album (not exactly a favorite), June 4, 2015. (combined/cropped by Donald Earl Collins;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding A Memory, Knowing the Whole Truth
From Cam Jansen Mysteries, a series of children’s books about a girl with a photographic memory who would solve mysteries and take pictures in her mind of the clues, August 9, 2012....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Holiday Traditions (really, not having any)
Christmas Holiday and Traditions Around The World ornament bulb, December 12, 2015. (http://johnseville.benchmark.us). At my chiropractic appointment yesterday morning, my bone-cracking doctor of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Cold Light of Grades
University of Pittsburgh after a snow storm, Cathedral of Learning, downloaded January 5, 2016. (http://www.everystockphoto.com). Dateline, Tuesday, January 5, 2016. Exactly twenty-eight years ago on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Big Wheel and Recovered Memories, Part One
Big Wheel, pretty much as I remember it, April 2014. (http://sf.funcheap.com/bring-big-wheel-race/). As most who read me know, I wrote a book about the worst of my growing up years three years ago, Boy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How I Met My Son
Noah’s birthday cake, Cheesecake Factory Original Cheesecake, adorned with candles, July 30, 2016. (Donald Earl Collins). My son turned thirteen yesterday. That sentence by itself speaks volumes. That...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Big Wheel and Recovered Memories, Part Two
It took me until three weeks after the sex assault on the Nathan Hale ES playground before I told my parents. Those three weeks are a blur, but not the blur that the incident with the light-skinned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Mom’s Migration Story, 50 Years Later
I would be a pretty terrible son and historian to not discuss the fact that this July and August marks fifty years since my mother moved to New York from little ol’ Bradley, Arkansas. For those who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No Time For Jealousy
Envy, June 2009. (http://psychologytoday.com). There are some emotions and human actions in which I don’t allow myself to partake. I usually don’t follow the herd. I don’t get caught up in what’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
David Wolf, A Teacher I Hope To Never Become
Film critic Gene Shalit (closest approximation I could find to David Wolf), circa 1980. (http://imdb.com). This date was one of the great ones during my Boy @ The Window years. It was a day (and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Go Greyhound (only when you can’t afford anything else)
Screen shot of December 1988 calendar, December 17, 2016. (http://timeanddate.com). It amazes me sometimes when I look at a date on a calendar and not only know I was doing at that time years and...
View Article
