A Perfect Day

 When I was ten-years-old I whined to my mother about the absolute drivel we were reading in school. At the time we, as a class, were reading a story about a Very Clever Grasshopper.

And for whatever reason, she handed me a copy of J.D. Salinger's A Perfect Day for Bananafish (PDF Download).

I was absolutely blown away. I had never read anything like that, and had no idea such stories even existed.  I'm sure my mouth was hanging open.

I asked my teacher why we weren't reading wonderful things like this, and she called my mother to tell her that this really wasn't appropriate for young children.

Mom told her basically to fuck off.  (You would have loved my mom.)

I read everything I could get my hands by Salinger after that, and he has been a lifelong joy. More than any other author, every time I read him, I find something different.

I'm re-reading Franny & Zooey at the moment, an ancient yellowed paperback I bought from B. Dalton Booksellers.  It's been with me through high school and college, more jobs and more apartments than I can count.

Still the same, yet always different.