Tag: Grady
Payoff
UNITED STATES—Wylie had a big house on Sixth Ave., near Country Club Park. The neighborhood is just as peaceful as it sounds. The house...
I Am/Was A Jerk
UNITED STATES—In “The Summing Up” W. Somerset Maugham rawly states, “I have never kept a diary. I wish now that during the year that...
The $20 Man
UNITED STATES—There I was a few weeks ago in my hometown, up north, trying to get waited on in a doughnut shop. A man...
Reseda
UNITED STATES—The property owner, Jim Wylie, was a gambler in a big way, but not in the literal sense. Jerry Segal, his colleague and...
Afterglow
UNITED STATES—“What am I going to do for three days?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question inspired by the looming three-day Veteran’s Day...
The Pay Off
UNITED STATES—It was a Thursday afternoon and ostensibly my “day off.” I was refuging into a movie theater, the Vista, to escape the unfolding...
A Bright And Guilty Place
UNITED STATES—The sun can, at times, be so raw and unforgiving, it can give you a toothache. And the survivors of the dreams and...
Through A Glass Empty
UNITED STATES—I’m so glad my sister and I were read to from an early age—to that we owe a lifelong love of reading and...
Take A Bow
UNITED STATES—The apple red Subaru wagon with Nevada plates sure expanded my world—there was the court circus, dunning tenants, showing rooms and it made...
Combustible
UNITED STATES—In April, when I took over the managerial duties for all the Wylie properties, no sooner had I moved out of Estrella Avenue,...
Decision
UNITED STATES—That fall and winter at Estrella Avenue I endured penuries that I hoped were behind me for good, such as living on ten...
Once Upon A Crime
UNITED STATES—It amazes me how much time’s vortex can pack into a single afternoon. At that first meeting of the Spanish cultural club, where...
Heavenly Daze
UNITED STATES—You wake up and you’re in this place where the clouds are all cottony as they glide across an achingly blue sky. Kinda...
Back To Begin
UNITED STATES—Back at the rooming house the pressure was on to get some scratch. Of course my teen horror screenplay, “The Persecuted” was floating...
Full Circle
UNITED STATES—Astonishing how things blossomed after joining the Spanish-language theater group. After one of the group's rehearsals Rafael, the director, invited me to check...
More Christmas In The Hood
UNITED STATES—The house filled with rich smells of punch that simmered on the stove. Aromas of cinnamon, guava and sugar cane thrilled our nostrils....
Christmas In The Hood
UNITED STATES—The owner of the store had moaned and whined about the neighborhood before the shooting. The porch homies affected his business as well...
Aftershocks
UNITED STATES—I had no time to worry about the earthquake in Watsonville. Everything seemed to be falling apart at the house I was managing....
A Lotta Shaking
UNITED STATES—One Tuesday afternoon, sunny and cool, lullabied by the sound of cars streaming from the 10 to the 110, I neared the end...
What’s Cookin’?
UNITED STATES—The people at 1980 Estrella taught me about cooking. Since I knew next to nothing, my culinary skills and variety grew exponentially. The...
