Steve Gibbs Autobiography

For Sunday, March 31, 2024 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 1,215 words Abio episode 16: Summer vacation in Wildwood For my freshman summer, my roommate Dan landed me a day-clerk spot at a hotel-motel-restaurant on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey, the Eisenhower Hotel and Golden Shores Motel, which offered the European plan – no free food – or the American plan – three meals included. Full restaurant. The Savory Seasoned-Salt family owned the business, and their mom ran the place. She opened for nine weeks each summer, then closed, took the proceeds and flew back to Europe with her assistant Sarah. In the summer she hired college students to run the place, plus a freelancing accountant and chef for the money and food. My job was at the front desk welcoming guests with my partner Mike. We’d check them in. Offer to carry their bags. We had no elevators and four floors. We’d record their money in the ledger as received or pending departure. We answered the phone and acc...

for Sunday, March 24, 2024 Drummer Column Gibbs, 1,269 words Abio episode 15 – Meet the adjunct editor-in-chief Because of Mr. Phillips’s D grade back in high school history, I was prevented from becoming a full-fledged Penn State student. I had to enter on adjunct status for one year, a probation. Fine. My moment had arrived. A rural hick with a background in factories was taking his first seat in a University English classroom. My mother bought me a new shirt and trousers, so I looked fine. As other kids wearing similar garb filed in, it became apparent that a lot of our moms shopped at the same few stores. We were freshmen, after all. Looking around I spotted several Wildlife Technology students who were skinning a deer yesterday. I relaxed a little. Mr. Browell entered with his leather briefcase. dark hair, glasses, goatee, banded ponytail and introduced the first novel, Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut. He wrote only “Kurt Vonnegut” on the boar...

Abio Episode 14 The big nudge -- My mental breakdown At age 18 I had to visit a psychiatrist. Alice Cooper was right. Something came over me while still working at Pure Carbon, a weight. Little had changed – lunch with my nothing-to-report friends, afternoon showers with 18 other filthy men, hitchhiking 11 miles to and from home every day for 8 months before I could afford a motorcycle. Same old routine that I’d grown to accept. Working with carbon was never fun, but fun and excitement was now seeping out of my evening and weekend life – the real life. Going swimming in the river didn’t interest me. House parties grew dull. Dirt-road bonfire keggers became tiresome. I recall standing in front of a jukebox at the pool hall and not being able to pick a song I wanted to hear. Something was wrong. I developed a tight spot at the top of my head. It was the weirdest sensation, not physical, just a localized pressure, like water torture. I tolerated it for weeks, tried to ...

For Sunday, March 10, 2024 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 1,219 words Abio 13: Period of transition This autobiography was about to take us into my college days, but then, two weeks ago, it did a backflip and dropped us off in 1958 on my neighborhood sidewalk in rural PA just in time for me to get run over by my neighbor and have my skull cracked open and all my memories spill out. Why? I’m in search of nudges that kept me in and out of college. Maybe I’m overlooking a childhood accident. When the pickup truck crashed into my train at my feet with a ball of orange flame, it should have traumatized me further. Instead, it knocked some sense into me. It was real, and I needed real. I was tired cutesy baby talk. By the river I clearly saw pollywogs and blackberries. I had much increased awareness of the world around me. A fog had lifted. I spoke my first words in three months. And so on. Now, today, while writing this, I’m wondering if those early accidents left any remnant ...

March 3, 2024 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 1,115 words Abio 12: Life after Ollie at age five After I refused to talk to Dr. Mahogany’s totally fake, below-my-age-level Ollie the sock puppet at the Erie Clinic for Kids with Brain Traumas, Dr. Mahogany closed the book on me. He gave no more tests. Not sure I could have said anything, but I never tried. Instead, he bumped us upstairs from Serious to Severe. A receptionist scheduled us to return in two weeks, when I would be injected with radioactive dye and hung upside down to pinpoint the blockage. We took the 120-mile train home and waited to depart again. Two weeks later we walked to the Ridgway station to catch the morning Erie train. We were already packed. Little did we know, but this train ride would be like no other. From my window seat, I had learned that looking straight out made everything blurry, but if I turned my head sideways against the glass, looking up the tracks, everything was clear. I could...

February 25 2024 Drummer column, Gibbs, 1,299 words Abio episode 11: Born at the age of five On the evening of August 28, 1958 at the age of four and a half, I was hit head-on by a car traveling 25 mph just a half block from my house. I’d darted out into the street following my older sister, Carol. The driver, Robert Frederick, live nearby on Vernon Street. I hit the front bumper, bounced my head on the roadway, and rebounded up to become lodged in the engine block. He dragged me eight feet before stopping, according to Carol, who was right there. Word spread. Alarms went off. My dad leaped a five-foot fence in our yard to get to me and crawled under the car to be with me the whole time, according to my sister. My chronicler. I was gone to the world. I learned that the fire department had to summon a tow truck to lift the Oldsmobile high enough for a safe extraction. At the local hospital, two blocks away, it was diagnosed that I had a ¾ round skull fracture, which nearl...

Sunday, February 18, 2024 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 1,251 words Abio episode 10: The college nudge What nudge got me to college of my own accord? So far, my autobiography has been mostly about my girlfriends. The easiest thing to remember about teenage years is love. Recalling my relationships helped me keep the events of my young adult life in order. Where did I work while dating each new friend? Where did I live? As well, the individual relationships, when taken in sequence, creates a clearer picture of the life lessons I learned about romance. Cheryl and Cheri wanted different things, marriage, berth, and birth, and I was not cut out for that. I understand the motives – take me from my parents, find us a home of my own, share adventures, and give me someone to love unconditionally, even if it isn’t you. I learned this: Before making a long-term commitment, be certain that you’re both happy with what the other person wants. Many hasty decis...