West Cleveland

There is a time in many childhoods where the horizons of the child expand suddenly, where the world grows immense and the opportunities for filling seemingly limitless free time seem limitless. For Richard this cosmic expansion occurred when Al and Lillian left the cozy apartment near the aptly named Charles Dickens Elementary School and obtained a storefront for the Healthflow orange juice business, with living quarters in the back, way over in West Cleveland. This was the industrial heart of the city where, a mere bike ride away, the flats of the Cuyahoga River lay lined with industrial detritus that only a nine year old of that era could love. The store front was on West 25th St. where the trolley car ran along, and for three cents a kid could ride all over the whole city. Three building up from the store front and across the street was the Sadie family grocery where a kid could buy all the essentials, a soda or a candy bar, or sometimes some bread and milk and a can of peas for Lillian. Nearly perfect for Richard, Lillian hated it. The Healthflow storefront was right next door to a butcher's. Right out the back door the butcher kept three barrels of offal which in warm weather attracted, it is not an exaggeration to say, hundreds of thousands of black flies. From Lillian's kitchen window she was 15 ft. from the barrels of flies and the smell was unspeakable. And speak she didn't; she just left the windows closed on the hottest of days and endured as the storefront filled up with out-of-service Healthflow machines.

First day of school

On his first day of school at Charles Dickens Elementary, the teacher had Richard stand in front of the class while she introduced him, "Now children, this is Richard. He's moved here all the way from Florida! Let's make sure we all make him feel welcome, etc. etc." Then she called on a big boy, six inches taller than Richard, to come up to the front of the class as well. "Richard this is Clark." Clark was clearly one of those angelic nine year old's that grow-ups instinctively trust. "Clark I want you to show Richard around today," the teacher said. "Now Richard I want you to follow Clark. You go everywhere that Clark goes. Just stick with him and follow him around." Richard, terrified of being at yet another new school, nodded. Then as Clark went back to his desk, Richard's innate sense of comedy kicked in and he followed Clark back to Clark's chair. The whole class burst out laughing and Richard was very embarrassed and ashamed. But it had been funny.