Clubius Incarnate
by Cooper Zale
An imagined “memoir”, with fictional details that I believe are consistent with what really happened, of my life as a young child, growing up in the late 1950s in the progressive university town of Ann Arbor Michigan in the U.S. Midwest. My challenge is to try to capture the emerging world of a precocious three to five-year-old kid and his interactions with his peers and the adult world. The story starts just before my third birthday, in April of 1958, when I am just beginning to really talk.
Episodes
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 27 - Margie
Chapter 27 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, Mom and dad go out for the evening to play Bridge, and interesting game…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 26 - Wiffenpoof
Chapter 26 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, dad has a bad day after having a “fight” with mom about grapefruit juice.…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 25 - Play School
Chapter 25 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, after that bad day at the “nursery school”, mom and dad pony up the precious...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 24 - Nursery School
Chapter 24 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, it’s my first day in this strange new place called “nursery school”, where…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 23 - The Swat
Chapter 23 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, I am impatient and get mad at my mom for not tying my shoe laces, and use a...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 22 - Allmendinger Park
Chapter 22 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, my mom decides I’m old enough to run free in the park across the street from...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 21 - My 4th Birthday
Chapter 21 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, relieved it’s not a rainy day, we celebrate my 4th birthday in Almendinger...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 20 - Spring
Chapter 20 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, that magical first day of spring that feels different after a long winter. I...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 19 - Molly's 4th Birthday
Chapter 19 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, I'm hanging out with other neighborhood kids at my best friend Molly’s 4th...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 18 - Christmas
Chapter 18 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In this chapter, my recollections of the party on Christmas eve with my grandma and grandpa...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 17 - Westwood Court
Chapter 17 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I am reintroduced to my grandparents, my “Aunt Pat”, and their very interesting house on...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 16 - Roomette
Chapter 16 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My mom and dad take me and my baby brother on an overnight train to visit my grandparents in...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 15 - Captain Kangaroo
Chapter 15 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I discover a show on television that I really like to watch and my mom teaches me how to tell...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 14 - Cider Mill
Chapter 14 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. On a fall day, I am invited to go with Molly and her parents to the Dexter Cider Mill for...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 13 - Tom Swift
Chapter 13 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My dad reads to me every night before bed, and draws from a number of adventure stories...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 12 - Television
Chapter 12 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My dad manages to get a small used black and white television, and a new form of electronic...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 11 - Cooper
Chapter 11 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. My mom and dad take me to a grownup party across the street at Molly’s house one evening, and...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 10- Brother
Chapter 10 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. That baby my mom and dad kept talking about finally came out of my mom somehow, but I balk at...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 9 - Hidden
Chapter 9 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. At Molly’s suggestion we hide in the spruce tree in our backyard where we can see out but…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 8 - Dirt
Chapter 8 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. I join my dad who drives our car on the roads of Ann Arbor to the gravel pit, where he fills…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter7 - Baseball
Chapter 7 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. A baseball game on the radio down in the basement between the Detroit Tigers and the New York...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 6 - Molly’s Room
Chapter 6 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Molly and I return from our tricycle adventure with dad and the big storm at the stadium to…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 5 - Tricycle
Chapter 5 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Dad takes Molly and me on an adventure on our tricycles to the Michigan Stadium, where we have...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 4 - My 3rd Birthday
Chapter 4 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Mom is relieved that it isn't going to rain so we can have my party in the park. Molly and I...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 3 - Basement
Chapter 3 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. Later that rainy day, I do another version of my pirate and goodguy story in the larger…
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 2 - Interiors
Chapter 2 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. On a rainy morning, I explore all the different places and spaces inside our house and make a...
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Clubius Incarnate Chapter 1 - Dubious
Chapter 1 of my autobiographical novel based on my life from age 3 to age 5, beginning just prior to my 3rd birthday in 1958 and continuing to just before going to elementary school in the fall of 1960. In the days before my 3rd birthday I finally decided to start really talking.
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Introduction
The introduction to my autobiographical novel of growing up from ages 3 to 5 in the late 1950s in a Midwest college town, giving you some context of my life and addressing the challenge of telling a story from the point of view of such a young (though precocious) person.
About this show
An imagined “memoir”, with fictional details that I believe are consistent with what really happened, of my life as a young child, growing up in the late 1950s in the progressive university town of Ann Arbor Michigan in the U.S. Midwest. My challenge is to try to capture the emerging world of a precocious three to five-year-old kid and his interactions with his peers and the adult world. The story starts just before my third birthday, in April of 1958, when I am just beginning to really talk.
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Cooper Zale
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