childhood | The Smart Set

When the Satanists Moved In

Erica Zelinger — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 12:30:00 +0000

Writer Paul Crenshaw found himself trying to make sense of the fear that engulfed everything in his 1980s childhood in small-town Arkansas and the world around him. The Cold War. Stranger Danger. Satanic Panic. In his most recent book of essays Melt with Me: Coming of Age and Other ’80s Perils, published by The Ohio […]

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The Last Emperor

Balu George — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:30:00 +0000

The boy of 11 is at a book fair. School is out in Cochin, India, and he has dragged his father along to the book fair in the city. In two days’ time, the family is going on vacation to Ahmednagar, where his father’s elder brother stays. The uncle works in a sugar factory there, […]

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Play it with Tremolo

Thomas Laver — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:30:00 +0000

“Whisper!” the priest commanded. In a second, the sound of my grade one classmate’s recitation plummeted from stentorian, to sotto voce, to smothered. He had just intoned the opening words of the Roman Catholic ritual of confession, “this is my first confession.” I was next in the confessional queue, but I couldn’t hear him mumble […]

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Bursting a Bubble

Scott Hurd — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 12:45:54 +0000

Thanks to the Shah of Iran, I attended elementary school at a small Christian academy in west Tennessee. Four decades later, that experience adds perspective to what I see going on today. Not in Iran. But in the US.  Months after I completed sixth grade, Iranian revolutionaries took hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran, […]

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My Sister’s Bookshelf

Chris Orlet — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:30:00 +0000

Throughout the long-gone days of my childhood a thick, worn paperback sat on top of the lid of the tank of our upstairs toilet. Wilt, a biography of Wilt Chamberlain, the Hall of Fame center for the Los Angeles Lakers. My father had checked out the book on the only trip he ever took as […]

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Dried Eggs and Bloody Underwear

Lori Mooney — Thu, 25 May 2023 11:30:00 +0000

I stood at the counter, shaking. In one hand, a crinkled $5 bill. In the other, Always Super Overnight maxi pads with wings. Before this, I had been a carefree innocent child. Now, I was in charge of not bleeding through my underpants. I was 11 years old.  Sensing my discomfort, the cashier quickly double-bagged my […]

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Hyphens, Buckles, Roots, and Wings

Gemma Singh — Mon, 01 May 2023 11:30:00 +0000

I lie down in bed with Mama, Papa, and Simba, the stuffed lion my brother gifted me when he returned home for the summer to our small, affluent, North Indian town. I love Papa’s bedtime stories, which take me on a journey through India’s fight for freedom against the British, the inventions of the Indus […]

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On Wolves and Wild Things

Pireh Moosa — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:30:00 +0000

Almost three decades ago at Yellowstone National Park, 14 wolves were re-released into the wild. They charged ferociously into the landscape, lunging at elk, deer, and bison. They howled for each other, their sheer volume breaking miles of forest and land. Elk darted fearfully far from the woodlands in search of shelter from their returned […]

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Beautiful Death

Donald McCarthy — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Autumn fascinates thanks to its paradoxical nature, full of vibrancy and decay. The way that autumn unravels with a soft scratching in the night as the wind blows leaves across yards and sidewalks creates a potent mix of chills and nostalgia. The colorful foliage comes with the reminder that death is looming around the corner. […]

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Yu-Gi-Oh! and Us

Marek Makowski — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:30:00 +0000

The first time in my life I felt summoned to something — before writing, before love — I received an invitation to the Duelist Kingdom. It arrived in the mail: a VHS tape and letter from Maximillian Pegasus, CEO of Industrial Illusions. In the video the cartoon man appears in a red double-breasted suit, standing […]

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