Tag Archives: childhood

Bringing Grandpa Home

Posted on June 14, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir Somewhere along the line Grandma and Grandpa McLaughlin had moved from Los Angeles to the foot of California’s San Gabriel Mountains. Dating back to the early 1900s, the town of Upland was full of half-timbered craftsman homes … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , | 53 Comments

My Scar Stories Revisited

Posted on June 2, 2022 by mitchteemley

I’m up to my proverbial eyeballs in projects once again – the chiefest of which is my daughter’s wedding (which I’m officiating, btw)! Hence, I’ll be on hiatus for a week or so. Therefore, this is the perfect time for … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir, Quips and Quotes | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Monsters I Have Known and Loved

Posted on May 24, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir The seed was planted when I was five years old. I’d enjoyed the poolside home of Mommandad’s old friends. They were childless and I was an only, so I played alone, shouting frequent, “Mom, Dad, look at … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 33 Comments

The Year I Began to Figure Out Who I Was

Posted on April 19, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir The only thing I knew for sure when I started 6th Grade was that I was a dreamer. Most boys, it seemed, were drawn to physical things, games and sports. But not me. I let my head … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

The Jesus Lady

Posted on April 12, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir I grew up in a thoroughly secular home. God was simply never the topic of conversation. I literally didn’t know that Christmas was named for Christ. And Easter? Well, it was about eating chocolate bunnies and egg … Continue reading →

Posted in For Pastors and Teachers, Humor, Memoir, Religion/Faith | Tagged , , , , , | 50 Comments

The Boy with Two Brains

Posted on April 5, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir Many of my memoir posts have had a Tom Sawyer-ish tone, provoking “Oh, you had such an idyllic childhood!” responses. But in the last couple of months, there’ve been darker entries. In the past two weeks, I … Continue reading →

Posted in For Pastors and Teachers, Humor, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , | 39 Comments

My Phobia

Posted on March 29, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir Last week I wrote about one of the darkest experiences of my life (it must have triggered some algorithm because WordPress cancelled all notifications). A train was involved. Then, a month later, a very different train encounter … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 79 Comments

I Dare You

Posted on March 22, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir (Heads-up: this was one of the darkest experiences of my life) My parents loved visiting their old friends Don and Gina. Which left their only child Craig and me to “play” together. Craig was almost two years … Continue reading →

Posted in For Pastors and Teachers, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

The Darkness Within Us

Posted on March 8, 2022 by mitchteemley

Source: drawception.com My Real Memoir (Warning: Contains some disturbing descriptions) I thought I didn’t have a dark side. When a college professor asked us to talk about our most sadistic impulses, our temptation to hurt others, I was the only … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 44 Comments

That Time I Almost Joined the Circus

Posted on March 1, 2022 by mitchteemley

My Real Memoir As kids, we knew we could become anything. It was just a matter of deciding what. And that was usually determined by which Disney movie we’d most recently seen. After my buddy Jeff and I saw Walt … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , , | 35 Comments