Category: Auto-biographical (youth and childhood)

It’s tough being an Atheist in God’s Country. I was watching a televangelist program today, something about Jesus getting in a boat and talking to a storm. “Jesus TALKS to the storm inside us! He got in the boat, and he SPOKE to that storm.” Damn. I want to be worshiped for talking to clouds.…

I wonder now if she was ever referred to as Katie? Kate was her name…Kate Doherty and she was my grandmother. I only knew her for seventeen years, while I was a child mostly, but even then I knew she was invincible. If you looked at her, you might deceptively think her frail or weak.…

One summer, while I was visiting at my grandmother’s farm, I got it into my head that I wanted to go out into the fields and pick cotton. No matter that for years – decades even – cotton had been picked by machine and only ‘gleaners’ went into the fields to pick what was left…

THE TEDDYBEAR The heavy motorcycle roared down the little London East End side street. Screeched to a stop. Roared back again. Screeched to a stop. Came back once more, bombing along, at some crazy speed. Jane Doyle turned over in bed, and looked at the alarm clock. Half past one in the morning. What the…

(It’s always interested me how many people didn’t like the Modelmaker. He first appeared mixed in with the aviation stories in ‘Castles in the Sky’. Many were the folk who said it didn’t belong there. A prosperous young lady told me she felt the Modelmaker was a pompous ass, but added that ‘at least he…

The next story, written a long while ago, whistles back over half a century in time. Before you read it, sit back, close your eyes, and ask yourself some questions. Then answer them honestly. 1) how many hours a week do YOU watch the telly? 2) how many hours a week do you read books?…

(this is another -true!- golden oldie, I wrote many years ago, about a summer job I had, driving an ice cream truck around Dublin…) FREE ICE CREAM! It went wrong of course, right from day one. Well, quicker than that even. I was only there twenty minutes or so, before I committed a classic clanger.…

(this is an old -true!- story I wrote many years ago…) MEETING MRS BIRD I had to admit to my girlfriend that I had been putting it off. There was no point in denying it. She knew. I knew. But… I had GOOD reasons, I kept telling her. It would NOT work. I KNEW it…