This Passes for Memoir

The recent update of Anthony's World, our web site now includes a long list of memoir pieces by Anthony Buccino. 

Let us know if you have a favorite memoir piece that's not listed.

On the town!

My 14-Year-Old Self Came in the Mail

Should I Open?

A large brown envelope arrived recently in snail mail from Ashtabula, Ohio. It contained copies of letters I wrote to a young woman named Mary when we were 14. We met in the northeastern Ohio township, and decided to keep in touch when my summer vacation ended.
I found her on Facebook, and we got in touch after four decades. When she realized I’d become a writer, she mentioned my letters in a box in her attic. Would I like copies? What could I have possible said in those letters to a relative stranger 300 miles away? And why would she save them into this millennium?
“They’re about what you’d expect a 14 year old to write about,” she said.
Would I like to meet myself at 14? Not that I could go back and talk some sense into my head, but what I think about those times now and what I was actually saying at the time, well, they’re mountains apart.

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Remembering a Summer, and the Girl Who Had My Heart

It started innocently, as all these stories do. I was on an open-ended summer vacation at Lake Erie. In September, I’d return to New Jersey and my junior year of high school. I’d count the days until I got my driver’s license, and could return to this summer place.That day, my buddy drove us in his VW Bug to a new shopping center in Mentor where the stores were connected and under one roof. It was the biggest thing to hit northeastern Ohio in 1970 since practically ever....

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Auto Recall of Long-Gone Jalopies. BY Anthony Buccino

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Next to buying a house, buying a car is one of the biggest investments the average person will make. The similarities include new sticker shock and the ongoing money hole that comes with old houses and used cars, not to mention endless payments. We may someday see a 40-year "mortgage" on your new gas guzzler.
My one-time boss summed up life and cars: "During a man's lifetime, he will need one true love, two doctors, three dogs, 16 cars and 128 tires." If he's right, I've had too many dogs and not enough cars, although it could be argued that a few of those cars were dogs.

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