Growing Up Stories

[kennyc]

My latest book Growing Up Stories - True Stories of a Brown Dirt Boy
is now available from Amazon. It is a collection of twenty-nine essays
and memoirs of growing up in southern Oklahoma and my eventual escape



These were written primarily to document some of the characters, people and
situations in my early life for my immediate family but I'm hoping
others find them of interest as well.

Available now at Amazon outlets worldwide

U.S. Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBLRKU0
U.K. Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GBLRKU0

A couple of additional samples "The Blanket" and "Becoming a Man"
are available on my Mansions of the Mind blog

[hidari]

Just bought it. Keep it up and keep the poetry coming.....

[kennyc]

Thank you! Let me know what you think!

[kennyc]

From A.K.A. Kenny:

A.K.A. Kenny

It was in the spring of my 30th year that I learned my entire life had been a lie. That Spring I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. That degree along with ten years of work experience in the field put me in high demand. I was being flown all over the country for interviews – Intel in San Diego, Data General in Boston, Fluke in Seattle, Heathkit in Benton Harbor, Texas Instruments in Dallas, and Goodyear Aerospace in Phoenix. They were all excellent opportunities and I did get offers from each of them but I could only choose one and they all had trade-offs. I was very much into computers and probably should have chosen Data General or Intel, but the cost of living in either Boston or Santa Clara would have been significant. Being a country boy at heart I was a bit leery of the big-city lights. In the end though I think it was the intrigue that led me to choose Goodyear Aerospace without even knowing what kind of work I’d be doing. They did top secret military aerospace work, that’s about all I knew. I’d have to get a security clearance before I could even be told what they were doing. I expected to be working on leading edge electronic systems as they’d promised and it did turn out to be true and very interesting. But first, to work there I’d have to pass a DOD background check and obtain a Secret Clearance. I had a clean record – well as clean as anyone -- so I figured no problem. I’d just keep quiet about those mind-altering journeys of the 60’s and 70’s.
Imagine my shock when I found out I wasn’t who I thought I had been all my life.....

Available now at Amazon outlets worldwide

U.S. Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBLRKU0
U.K. Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GBLRKU0

[kennyc]

Just a Christmas Bump. .... wait is Mrs. Clause Pregnant????

[kennyc]

Still Available at Amazon.

Black Racer

You know how kids are; they get an idea in their head and won’t let it go. Well, maybe not just kids, I’ve known more than a few adults like that. I’ve never cared much for snakes, most people don’t and there are deep evolutionary and psychological reasons for that. When I was in about the first grade someone, some relative most likely a cousin or aunt or someone scared the bejeezus out of me talking about black racer snakes and how fast they were and that they would intentionally chase you down a road or trail just to bite you. I was just a kid so didn’t consider much about why a snake would want to do something like that rather than just stay away. I figured they were able to think and plan and chase and be mean like the bullies in school. I became a bit obsessed about the whole thing even though I’d never heard of anyone seeing a black racer and I’d never seen one myself. Every day I dreaded walking home from the school bus stop the mile or so on the gravel road that led to our farm. I just knew the black racers would be hiding in wait at the edge of the road for someone to walk by so they could chase them. In my fear I developed a plan which I saw as perfectly rational. I’d cross the culvert into the cattle field next to the road with its chest high weeds and Johnson grass and I’d run, run, run for my life all the way home rather than risk a black racer seeing me on the road, chasing me, and biting me!
.....

U.S. Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBLRKU0
U.K. Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GBLRKU0

[kennyc]

A short excerpt from "Party Line"

Party Line


I don’t remember ever not having a telephone when I was a kid, but it wasn’t a private line like you probably have. It was a party line shared with several others homes and by party line I don’t mean cookies and cake. Once in a while you’d pick up the phone to make a call and there’d be a conversation already going on, maybe the Shebesters to the north or the Joneses to the south. Human nature being what it is you couldn’t really help but listen in a little bit, rarely if ever was it anything Earth-shattering but it was always a bit of a voyeuristic thrill to hear talk not meant for your ears even if it was just about the weather, crops or family stuff. Living on a farm as we did, the telephone was a necessity and a literal lifeline on a few occasions. Thinking of it that way makes me wonder about earlier generations of farmers and ranchers and how they coped without it. I suppose they had to be even more self-reliant in case of emergencies. It also meant they weren’t bothered by one ring or two rings that were coded designations assigned to the parties on the line. One ring for Shebesters, two rings for Chaffins, a long and a short for Joneses and so on.
From the start it was that phone that fascinated me, spurring my imagination, wondering how it worked and being amazed at the thought that that it could connect me with virtually anyone in the world. It was awe inspiring and a big trigger that set me on the road of science, electronics, asking why and trying to learn everything I could about the world around me and how science was the key to it all. And that to some extent came in direct conflict with the religious and spiritual environment around me.
.....

U.S. Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBLRKU0
U.K. Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GBLRKU0

[kennyc]

Just saw this article - An Egg in an Egg - http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and...g-find-out-how

I used to see double-yoked eggs all the time when growing up on our chicken farm culling, sorting, sizing eggs for sale.

I talk about raising chickens and many other things in Growing Up Stories