CynOp

The Cynical Optimist – Art, Poetry, Short Stories, Commentary, Photography

Ann Arbor – Part 1 – Memoir Continued

Moonlit Meditation 2 –LE – Beginning of the Snake Creeps Down movement in Tai Chi – Acrylic on Canvas 16×20″

Ann Arbor – Part 1

Yes, I was a little depressed after Gail. Ted A. was going to go and check out the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and invited me to go along for company. I was still without a driver’s license, so decided to enjoy a diversion. We went up for the weekend and loved it there. So, we just stayed. Ted found a job at a car dealership, Henderson Ford, if I remember correctly. He was a natural salesman. And I found a job selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners door to door. That only lasted a couple of weeks. I was terrible at it. We were staying with another of the car salesmen that Ted befriended at his new job. Luckily, I found a better job shortly after that and started to make enough to get a place of my own.

I started working as a Mechanical Lab Technician for the National Seal Division of Federal Mogul Corp in Ann Arbor. There was a union there, but the lab techs were not in it. I was salaried and paid weekly. Don’t remember how much, but it was more than minimum wage. I ran wear tests on oil seals for machinery and auto. Ran them on test machines until the seals failed, collected the failure data, and made reports for R and D.s

Side note: it was Ted’s friend that we were staying with who turned me on to Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, and the sword and sorcery genre in general. I can’t remember his name, but I thank him wholeheartedly. Up until then, I was mostly into the classics and some SciFi. But I did read some really great ones there too, A Voyage to Acturas by David Lindsy, Stranger In a Strange Land by Heinline, Started the Foundation trilogy by Asimov, and even started the Lord of the Rings…

I went out a couple of times with Jane H., who was a psych major at U of M. She was trying to psychoanalyze me any time we were together, so that didn’t last more than the couple of times we went out. But she did turn me on to Leonad Cohen’s first album. I was also introduced to Joni Mitchell’s first album, Song to a Seagull, around that time. Those albums influenced my musical tastes for years after that.

While I was talking to Ted at his work one day, one of the secretaries, Susan K., took an interest in me. I talked to her and she invited me to a couple of parties, doubling with Ted and the other secretary, Sharon. Ted eventually married Sharon. And they moved to Toronto, Canada, but that’s a couple of years down the road yet.

To be Continued

RR Crossing, exiting the Port of Ashland on the Ohio RIver –LE – Monochrome-Madness

Liam Eddy

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12 responses to “Ann Arbor – Part 1 – Memoir Continued”

  1. Many, many years ago, Stranger in a Strange Land was the first speculative fiction novel I read. Planet of the Apes was the second. Since then, all genres falling under the speculative fiction umbrella constitutes the majority of my reading material.

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  2. Liam, I didn’t realize how long the article was, and that it contained some “woke” nonsense until after I sent the link. I should have read it through before the fact. 🙄

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    • It was way too pedantic. Reminded me of lit classes in school, where we had to interpret (read between the lines), explain what the author meant or was trying to ‘expose’. That is, as long as your interpretation agreed with the teachers… A lot of hot air to me. Once a piece of lit, fiction, poetry, or even graphic arts is out there for public consumption, however the viewer/reader interprets the piece is fine. It’s whatever the audience gets out of it. What the artist/author intended may be of some secondary interest, but the reader/audience’s interpretation is the only one that truly matters IMHO.

      I like a lot of Gaiman’s work, but especially ‘Sandman’ and ‘American gods’ (read them years ago, long before they filmed them). I’ve read Vonnegut, Bradbury, and Heinlein, but don’t know the others. My reading nowadays is pretty eclectic, lots of philosophy/mediphysical and scientific speculation, lots of fantasy, poetry, and ‘who-done-its’… Kat, thanks for reading and commenting…; -)

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      • I agree with your assessment of the article, Liam. I just read a sentence or two and copied the link. Lord, what a lot of words that amounted to nothing! And I dumped it on you. lol
        I don’t read (for enjoyment) a lot that isn’t fiction or poetry. But I do sprinkle into my usual fare occasional who-done-its, coming of age, and literary fiction—and other genres. Harlan Coben and Jonathan Kellerman are my favorite who-done-it authors. I’ve lost count of the number of books of theirs I’ve read.

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      • Sounds good to me, Kat, whatever peaks your interest and enjoyment. I read/listen (epubs and audio books) to so many that half the time I don’t know or remember who the authors are. But those I do remember in the who-done-its are, Tony Hillerman, Lee Child, Craig Johnson, Karin Slaughter, Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling), and Anne Hillerman. I easily go through 60 to 100 books a year…at least for the last few years…; -)

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      • Same here—I also read/listen to a lot of books. I always have a least one going. I’ve read most of the authors you mentioned above, the exception being Robert Galbraith, who I’ve never heard of. I didn’t know the connection to J. K. Rowling, and now, I’m intrigued.

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      • My favorite detective-type series is Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series. Alex is a psychologist, and he and his friend, Milo, who is a detective, solve murders. I’m close to reading them all.

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