I decided to learn how to write, or at least try to learn. I told my wife I was going to work at it for five years, and, if nothing happened, well, at least I could say I gave it a shot. By the time I was 50 I had published maybe six short stories in small literary magazines. I didn’t do anything with the degree but five years later, my dad retired from the mill, and after envisioning myself doing the same thing in another 20 years, I wanted to try to do something else with the rest of my life. In 1986, I quit drinking, and two years later, I started going to Ohio University part-time, thanks to a program at the paper mill. By the time I was 32, I was a drunk and broke, and had been married and divorced twice. I had gotten the equivalent of a GED in the meantime, simply because I promised my father I would if he let me quit school. I went to Huntington High School, but I hated school, and dropped out when I was 17 and went to work in a meatpacking plant for about a year. Then I worked in a nursery and a shoe factory before getting on at the paper mill in 1973.
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May 2023
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