A New Series by BobKat... A Fictional Autobiography, more fact than fiction...
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The following story and the title is copyrighted material by me, the author, alias not withstanding, beginning in 1978, and renewed the latest time in 2013. The title and the following material is owned by me and cannot be reprinted or transferred, in part or whole, for any reason whatsoever, by law. It cannot be printed or reprinted or disseminated in any form without my explicit permission. You may print this, and any subsequent posts/chapters one time for personal use, but you are not authorized to share or disseminate said printed materials in whole or in part and you are liable if the printed contents are transferred, sold or stolen in part or whole even without your knowledge. The reason for this warning is simple. This is a blog edition of a book I have been working on for the past 37 years. I am providing my story solely to viewers of my blog, for educational and entertainment purposes. Please enjoy and respect my privacy. You are welcome to forwards links to my blog, with the understanding that recipients are subject to the same restrictions to this this story, provided, that you send the link from Chapter One only. Please do not send links to other chapters or parts of chapters. To assist you, here is the link for Chapter one: The Only Authorized Link - "A View From Behind the Mop", Blogger Version 2013, by (alias legally synonymous to the author), BobKat.
NOTE 2: The following story is the story of my life in my early 20's, and holds particular significance to me. It is for that reason I am particularly cognizant of it's contents and sensitive to relevance and it's importance. Some of the names have been changed of people and places to protect the individuals involved, and ensure privacy. The story is true, it is not fiction; however for the same reasons listed above it has been fictionalized and is written as fiction; until such time as the novel has been published, you my fellow bloggers and visitors are the only ones to view the following story. Truth is stranger than fiction, so it should not be a surprise that truth is fiction. Enjoy!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The following story and the title is copyrighted material by me, the author, alias not withstanding, beginning in 1978, and renewed the latest time in 2013. The title and the following material is owned by me and cannot be reprinted or transferred, in part or whole, for any reason whatsoever, by law. It cannot be printed or reprinted or disseminated in any form without my explicit permission. You may print this, and any subsequent posts/chapters one time for personal use, but you are not authorized to share or disseminate said printed materials in whole or in part and you are liable if the printed contents are transferred, sold or stolen in part or whole even without your knowledge. The reason for this warning is simple. This is a blog edition of a book I have been working on for the past 37 years. I am providing my story solely to viewers of my blog, for educational and entertainment purposes. Please enjoy and respect my privacy. You are welcome to forwards links to my blog, with the understanding that recipients are subject to the same restrictions to this this story, provided, that you send the link from Chapter One only. Please do not send links to other chapters or parts of chapters. To assist you, here is the link for Chapter one: The Only Authorized Link - "A View From Behind the Mop", Blogger Version 2013, by (alias legally synonymous to the author), BobKat.
NOTE 2: The following story is the story of my life in my early 20's, and holds particular significance to me. It is for that reason I am particularly cognizant of it's contents and sensitive to relevance and it's importance. Some of the names have been changed of people and places to protect the individuals involved, and ensure privacy. The story is true, it is not fiction; however for the same reasons listed above it has been fictionalized and is written as fiction; until such time as the novel has been published, you my fellow bloggers and visitors are the only ones to view the following story. Truth is stranger than fiction, so it should not be a surprise that truth is fiction. Enjoy!
A VIEW FROM BEHIND THE MOP
by
BobKat
Blog-Chapter One:
I am the oldest child of four, born in 1954. I have a younger sister by a year and a half and two brothers much younger than myself. My parents met in Florida when my mother was a registered nurse, my father was in the Navy stationed there. He met my mother in a hospital in Florida and apparently it was love at first sight. They married soon after, and I arrived into this world just a little over nine months later.
My earliest memories begin around 3 to 4 years old... after my parents moved back to my mother's hometown of Jonsburg NY. We moved into an apartment for a couple of years, where I was told my only friend was a teen-aged male tenant, something I only have vague memories about. After that we moved into our first house, on a quiet street in the small city, where I basically grew up, until we moved again when I was in the 5th grade.
My first friends were my sister and two of her girlfriends. There were others in the neighborhood along with a friendly elderly neighbor named Mr. Philbrick. A tall horse-chestnut tree grew outside of his house on a corner lot and I remember being mesmerized by the large nuts that fell off of the tree and collecting them.
Things that happened when I was around 5 years old all blend together, and I find it hard to separate the memories. It seems now like it was ten years at least that all the things I remember happened, but I know that is not so. Mr. Philbrick must have died when I was around six, as I don't recall seeing him after that. I hung out with my sister then and her two friends which caused a great deal of concern for my mother who was afraid I would grow up gay if I didn't hang out with boys my age.
I was close to my mother as a young child, however when she forbade me to spend time with my sister, and fixed me up with a neighborhood boy friend I felt resentment. I remember the first time I actually crossed the street which must have been around age 4, and it wasn't a busy street by any means. I also remember getting beaten up by the neighborhood bully across from my house on that same street. I remember the fun catching grass-hoppers, and playing hop-scotch, mother-may-I and Simon Says. I remember the first time I fund a grass-hopper infested with worms ...
Overall, my childhood was idyllic, although the grass-hopper infested with worms was disturbing. I remember the dreams too, not uncommon, of demons where I was unable to escape them, and oddly, at such a young age I remember dreams where naked women lined up in a hall for me to make my selection, though what I was to do with my selection wasn't something I knew then as part of my dream. I just knew later in life that was pretty strange.
Back then one day you could cross the street and the next you could roam anywhere, and much of anywhere were forests with magical streams full of frogs, crayfish and salamanders. By age seven I had other friends whom I played baseball with and still along with my sister and my cousin Becky we would walk several miles to play at a park with monkey bars, a refreshment stand, horses, swings and what did they call them - the carousels that went round and round? There was an old public swimming pool too, in a gully that was fed by a stream where when my mother was a child it was full and they all swam. By the time I was old enough to be there the pool was a relic to a past considered a public health threat, and abandoned.
At age 8 my aunt Helen gave me a book for Christmas. I honestly don't remember how old I was when I first became interested in reading, especially science-fiction, but I remember that Christmas and receiving Ray Bradbury's "R IS FOR ROCKET". It was a collection of short stories, one of which was a novella of sorts called, "Frost and Fire". More than anything that has ever happened to me it changed my life, or at least, it planted the seeds for change. Briefly, it was the story of a person who grew up on the planet Mercury, where due to radiation from the Sun, the average lifespan was 7 - 10 days.The original settlers had been from Earth, had crash landed and somehow had found shelter in caves and survived. The average ascendant, many generations later, didn't question their short-term lifespan... but the main character of the story, a boy named Sim did.
The premise of the story was that birth - life -old age became accelerated, which amounted to being the equivalent of age 18 in 3 days, age 40 in 5 days, and age 70 by 7 days. But there was a secret, two secrets in fact. One was that a group of rebels known as scientists lived deep within the caves and that they knew something about the origin of their life and a secret plan that would prolong their lives. The other was that farther up the valley were caves where people lived for 10 days, not just 7. Sim was unconventional enough that he chose to seek the truth against the wishes of his parents and the community standards. On day 3 of his life he sought out the scientists against the wishes of his parents and was mocked because of his choice to pursue a myth and not marry and have children like everyone else did.
Sim found the scientists... and I highly recommend the story to everyone, although perhaps reading the story should be prohibited to those under age 18. The story altered my young mind, only I didn't know it then. It would be another 10 years before the story took form in my mind in a way that provided a strange motivation for me. And much like the experience Sim had, my parents would also condemn my actions and mock me when I too sought out the scientists.
Next time - Blog-Chapter Two... Seeking Science and the Truth About Life...
My earliest memories begin around 3 to 4 years old... after my parents moved back to my mother's hometown of Jonsburg NY. We moved into an apartment for a couple of years, where I was told my only friend was a teen-aged male tenant, something I only have vague memories about. After that we moved into our first house, on a quiet street in the small city, where I basically grew up, until we moved again when I was in the 5th grade.
My first friends were my sister and two of her girlfriends. There were others in the neighborhood along with a friendly elderly neighbor named Mr. Philbrick. A tall horse-chestnut tree grew outside of his house on a corner lot and I remember being mesmerized by the large nuts that fell off of the tree and collecting them.
Things that happened when I was around 5 years old all blend together, and I find it hard to separate the memories. It seems now like it was ten years at least that all the things I remember happened, but I know that is not so. Mr. Philbrick must have died when I was around six, as I don't recall seeing him after that. I hung out with my sister then and her two friends which caused a great deal of concern for my mother who was afraid I would grow up gay if I didn't hang out with boys my age.
I was close to my mother as a young child, however when she forbade me to spend time with my sister, and fixed me up with a neighborhood boy friend I felt resentment. I remember the first time I actually crossed the street which must have been around age 4, and it wasn't a busy street by any means. I also remember getting beaten up by the neighborhood bully across from my house on that same street. I remember the fun catching grass-hoppers, and playing hop-scotch, mother-may-I and Simon Says. I remember the first time I fund a grass-hopper infested with worms ...
Overall, my childhood was idyllic, although the grass-hopper infested with worms was disturbing. I remember the dreams too, not uncommon, of demons where I was unable to escape them, and oddly, at such a young age I remember dreams where naked women lined up in a hall for me to make my selection, though what I was to do with my selection wasn't something I knew then as part of my dream. I just knew later in life that was pretty strange.
Back then one day you could cross the street and the next you could roam anywhere, and much of anywhere were forests with magical streams full of frogs, crayfish and salamanders. By age seven I had other friends whom I played baseball with and still along with my sister and my cousin Becky we would walk several miles to play at a park with monkey bars, a refreshment stand, horses, swings and what did they call them - the carousels that went round and round? There was an old public swimming pool too, in a gully that was fed by a stream where when my mother was a child it was full and they all swam. By the time I was old enough to be there the pool was a relic to a past considered a public health threat, and abandoned.
At age 8 my aunt Helen gave me a book for Christmas. I honestly don't remember how old I was when I first became interested in reading, especially science-fiction, but I remember that Christmas and receiving Ray Bradbury's "R IS FOR ROCKET". It was a collection of short stories, one of which was a novella of sorts called, "Frost and Fire". More than anything that has ever happened to me it changed my life, or at least, it planted the seeds for change. Briefly, it was the story of a person who grew up on the planet Mercury, where due to radiation from the Sun, the average lifespan was 7 - 10 days.The original settlers had been from Earth, had crash landed and somehow had found shelter in caves and survived. The average ascendant, many generations later, didn't question their short-term lifespan... but the main character of the story, a boy named Sim did.
The premise of the story was that birth - life -old age became accelerated, which amounted to being the equivalent of age 18 in 3 days, age 40 in 5 days, and age 70 by 7 days. But there was a secret, two secrets in fact. One was that a group of rebels known as scientists lived deep within the caves and that they knew something about the origin of their life and a secret plan that would prolong their lives. The other was that farther up the valley were caves where people lived for 10 days, not just 7. Sim was unconventional enough that he chose to seek the truth against the wishes of his parents and the community standards. On day 3 of his life he sought out the scientists against the wishes of his parents and was mocked because of his choice to pursue a myth and not marry and have children like everyone else did.
Sim found the scientists... and I highly recommend the story to everyone, although perhaps reading the story should be prohibited to those under age 18. The story altered my young mind, only I didn't know it then. It would be another 10 years before the story took form in my mind in a way that provided a strange motivation for me. And much like the experience Sim had, my parents would also condemn my actions and mock me when I too sought out the scientists.
Next time - Blog-Chapter Two... Seeking Science and the Truth About Life...
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