Dizzyland

Dizzyland

Dizzyland ‘Dizzyland’ is what my brother and sister called it, perhaps believing that it was named for the effect produced by the tea-cups ride.  My child-self secretly believed that Disneyland was the first level of heaven; I had recurrent dreams that one could...
Hellfire and Carnation

Hellfire and Carnation

Hellfire and Carnation “The kids want to know what church we go to,” I complained to my parents.  We had just moved from Los Angeles, where the angels are, as the name implies, well and truly lost, to a church laden suburb of Rochester, New York called Chili, which...
Jungles of the Amazon

Jungles of the Amazon

Jungles of the Amazon Ignoring the fact that her eldest daughter was swinging through the trees hollering like Tarzan and flying from rooftop to rooftop at the school pretending to be Peter Pan, my mother focused her homophobic anxieties on my brother. Girls could be...
Tortilla Rhymes with Chinchilla

Tortilla Rhymes with Chinchilla

Tortilla Rhymes with Chinchilla One might expect that a school in a town called Chili, pronounced with two long ‘i’s’, chai-lie, the local schools might be a little substandard.  I had come from a Junior High in Manhattan Beach where the local drug dealer parked...