UNCOMMON

My observations on life and god and loving one's fellow man were scrupulously formed by my sixth year. They were: I will excel as both altar boy and saint (maybe martyr) dutifully following the exacting Catholic credo as ascribed by my mother. I will live up to my three older brothers' reputation for wielding high IQs. I will be married, in due course, to a woman who looked remarkably like my First Grade teacher, Mrs. Lark. We will reside in Arkansas, making a living plowing fields on our undoubtedly many acres. (Not sure where the latter aspiration came from, but watching MODERN FARMER Saturday mornings before the cartoons may have played a role.) Oh..and my fondness for naked GI Joes (as opposed to my school yard pals' partiality for stripped Barbie dolls) would be a fleeting and soonly fading fancy. Surely. By Sixth Grade, I was full-on weird. - UNCOMMON Johnny Francis Wolf