Program 11: "So Young & So Untender"

(914K)

Feb 6, 2006

a few years ago i found a means of calming myself by writing about people who'd vanished off the radar. not just people i didn't talk to anymore, but people i hadn't talked to much in the first place. third grade teachers and regional supervisors from frank's nursery and crafts were all fair game. it wasn't that i didn't try writing about old intimate connections, it was that writing about them produced rambling, useless prose. it was better to write stories about the fringes, the "glancing blows," so to speak. detachment made more room for a story. so: this was my first big crush. he always finished his tests before everyone else, he had an odd sense of humor i found appealing, he was remarkably patient with me during square dancing. he moved to new york in the early spring of sixth grade and i hadn't thought about him in years and years--that is--until i started writing about him.

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