In the summer of 1967, when I was nearly 17, I worked at a bingo lounge called Skill-Right on Revere Beach Boulevard. I would walk up and down the long U-shaped aisles, with customers on either side. They’d hail me if they wanted to buy more cards, or if they’d won. The customers were exactly […]

2021, which has become known as “The Year of The Big Quit,” takes me back to another year in which I quit not once, but four times. In the fall of 1971, I quit my junior year of college. I had run out of money and had taken out large loans and a ton of […]

I wanted to be brave. She was sweeping when I walked in. It was just her and me in the salon. She greeted me and came closer to ask how I was. I had been practicing. What to say. I had never said it to her before. Two of my sisters had done it. And […]