Comments:
I have very few memories from before the age of 20. Whether this is a precursor of Alzheimer's, I have no idea. But most of my very few memories are of Mumford High, where I met many people I liked very much, and several who have remained close friends for the past--well, the past half-century and more.
After I graduated from Mumford, I lacked the money to go to Ann Arbor, so I earned a B.A. at Wayne State. The highlight of those years, beside some marvelous professors, was going to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, surely the most meaningful experience of my still-young life. I treasure that summer, and the dozens of talks which I gave at black churches and synagogues over the next year, until I went to NYU Graduate School, earning my M.A. in Theatre in 1967. In 1968, having won a Conscientious Objector status regarding my refusal to serve in Viet Nam, I married a Canadian-born-and-raised teacher, Merle Benjamin, and moved to Toronto (anyway!) that summer, where I taught high school for five years, then earned my Ph.D. in Theatre Criticism and Drama from York University in my chosen city. Then, after several years of teaching university both full and part time, I moved into radio and TV writing and performing, and finally magazine writing and book writing, which has sustained me (fairly well!) until this day. So there.