Jean Shepherd - "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories (unabridged)"

[@fullercrowley]

I miss this guy so much! I used to get in trouble listening to his stories on WOR out of NYC on my transistor radio as a kid, the sheets pulled over my head in the dark. My mother had the pinpoint hearing of a mongoose and would make me turn the radio off, but it wasn't long before she was coming in to listen with me. We went to see Jean read his stories in NJ when I was growing up. Still one of my writing heroes. Thanks for having this channel!! 🥰

[@tomswift26]

I couldn't guess how many times I've read this story since my Old Man had the book, but listening to Shep read it made it come alive.

[@cmans79tr7]

I'm enthralled with Shep's ability to take us to the "scene" with him within the first sentence of his stories. In another of his short stories, I fondly remember Shep reacting to something on the television, while looking out of his high-rise window at the street below, as the ice cubes clink in his glass of scotch-on-the-rocks. Scotch-rocks used to be my favorite drink, and I know that moment when the cubes start to clink means that you've already had a few sips and have had time to start feeling the effects of the scotch.... A writer-publisher-professor I had in College once told us that every word published in a book costs money, so you had to make each word count. That is what Shep did, so keeping in mind Shep's prose, and my publisher-professor"s words, I always try to bring a reader "to the scene" within the first sentence of my business emails.

[@kathyyoung1774]

Outstanding

[@cmans79tr7]

Omg! It is now 1:40 AM and I have to work "tomorrow" at 8:30 AM, but I have to comment now...This is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard, if not the funniest in the way it was told. I expected it to be standard broadcast fare, which would help me to drift off to sleep as usual, but the setup with the Carborundom collar, Iron Maiden shoes and horsehair shoulder pads, with the piece de' resitance being the dinner table antics, had me heaving laughing. I was afraid I was going to wake my wife up. I thought that I had heard or read this story before, due to some of the snippets, but that dinner table part of the story had me in stitches. Now I need to find a calmer broadcast to help me sleep. Thanks much for posting this! My goodness! To go from describing "Wanda's" eyes as being beautiful due to the effects of being myopic and not wearing glasses, to perceiving through his alcoholic stupor, his buddie's eyes across the table (as the buddy is seemingly talking to the ketchup bottle on the table), as "Black Holes"....sublimely hilarious.

[@EdwardTrusky]

Shep. Goes, so unappreciated.😂

[@cmans79tr7]

Another of many special guest vocabulary words in this essay is "callow." I had to look that up, thought it might have something to do with yellow, or shallow, and I thought it was a pejorative, but Google says it means inexperienced, immature, lacking adult sophistication. The origin is from the Old English "calu" which means bald, and in the 17th century callow meant without feathers and applied to a baby bird not ready to fly. So "callow" is not a pejorative, but rather, an assesment, based upon the length of one's existence on this Earth.Thanks, Shep, for getting me to look that up. So now the word callow, which I have heard countless times in my life, not really knowing what it meant, has a greater meaning to me now when referencing callow youth similar to baby birds without feathers, not ready to fly.

[@cmans79tr7]

Oh, and one of Shep's special guest vocabulary words today is "Metier", which the big G tells me means a "Trade, Profession, or Occupation" that one is good at...( in reference to Sheps mother taking care of a smudge on Shep's collar)

[@donbenedik1277]

Can anyone tell a tale as well asShep?

[@EdwardTrusky]

You'll knock your eye out. Kid.

[@cmans79tr7]

Innuendo - From the Latin innuere meaning to nod, beckon, give a hint to someone, insinuate.