Branch Application Writer

We moved to Delray Beach, my old home town.

“The Class of ’57 Had Its Dreams.” The Statler Brothers.

I took a job in the bank my father had been on the board of directors of

writing branch applications. I found a job for Brenda through the bank.

At Mitel. She became a technical instructor. Telephone switchboards.

We made more money than we ever had before, but I was depressed.

I thought the necktie job was strangling me. Brenda urged me to use

some of our savings to print up and mail out pamphlets. These eventually

became my first novel, Screed. Jack Remick said Screed was 30 years

ahead of its time. That’s been 29 years ago. Do I hear footsteps?

Look for me under your bootstep, Camerado. Walt Whitman said.

I was a great walker. I walked to the beach and back every night.

I walked the streets of my native town. Like Thoreau or Kierkegaard.

Once, I heard a person asking directions of some people debouching from

the Colony Hotel, on the beach, and a man said, “We are from Finland,

so we don’t know.” They were on business, visiting IBM.

Too Europe for America, too America for Europe.

Just right for Iceland.