Day: Mar 15

By Paul Ford

2 intervals from 15 Mar 2001 (Belts Slick Tabulating)

1:41 am

Added a collection of short stories by my father, at [http://www.ftrain.com/whocares.html].

They've weathered well - when I read the collection before most of the pieces seemed disconnected from my sense of the world. But 6-7 years can make a difference; the world caught up with Dad.

It should be noted that Jim Esch, at [http://www.turksheadreview.com], did the work of publishing them in the first place.

1:44 am

West Chester. PA. Rotten with lawyers. Every adolescent grimness beset me there. I spent my youth in that town, performing puppet shows for children with my mother's traveling puppet theater. We were featured in the Daily Local News. We performed in church basements for 50 cents a seat. Later, I was tangentially involved in local civil rights battle, via my activist Mom.

I fell in love on Union St. I fell in the water of Goose Creek. I swam in the Brandywine. I was harrassed by police. I bought my music at the Mad Platter music store. I was confirmed at the church on Church St. The guy who started local indie punk hardcore thrash label Creep Records (http://www.creeprecords.com/) played saxophone in marching band. I played trombone. We were good friends until I left town at 16. You know that Burger King on High St? I protested the construction of that Burget King when I was 4 years old. My mother put a sign in my hand and made me march against Burger King.