Then + Now = Mr. Bauer + Paul Stenack + H.G. Wells

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mr. Bauer was my 6th grade teacher

at  PS 193  in Whitestone, NY

Except for PE

(Physical Education)

 better known as "Gym,"

he taught us everything.

I learned how to play soprano recorder

from Mr. Bauer.

As a result of this,

I learned how to play

piano.

Thanks to Mr. B,

I became a great admirer

of the greatest books

written in alphabetical order:

dictionaries and encyclopedias.

But he sucked as a Math teacher

and my laser-beamed

Italian brown eyes

occasionally told him as much.

It reached a point

where Mr. Bauer would whisper

in my ear

—before the Math lesson began—

Paul, you look like

you need to use the bathroom.

In fact,

I had no such need

but welcomed the opportunity

to leave the classroom.

The first time he whispered

and I wandered,

I returned after two minutes 

but he signaled from his desk

to wander some more.

I always loved books

except for the part about

reading them.

So I went to the library

which was half the size

of the boy's room.

The year was 1961.

That is when I met Paul Stenack.

The library cubicle

was entirely his.

He quickly realized 

that I had little to say

but was a very good listener.

He mostly talked about two books:

War of the Worlds

and

The Invisible Man

The next school bell

would ring,

indicating lunch time.

Paul Stenach always talked

about Science Fiction

in such a detailed

and articulate way

that it scared

the beJesus out of me.

But I continued hanging out

with Paul because

the terror also excited me.

The lasting effect of those

library cubicle encounters

was that I refused to read

any science fiction

until I was a college student

and card-carrying member

of the Hippie Movement.

Kurt Vonnegut

became required reading

and I guzzled virtually every novel

KV ever wrote.

Despite reading Cat's Cradle

and 

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

a dozen times

—and loving them more

with each reading—

my favorite Vonnegut novel

is devoid of anything

related to science fiction:

MOTHER NIGHT

Anyway,

I did not read anything

by H.G. Wells

until the year 2020:

Fifty-nine years after

his most famous novels

gave me nightmares

!!!

TONO-BUNGAY

is considered Wells'

"most artistic novel"

and "least scientific"

It is considered 

the first modern satire

of advertising

written in English.

I just finished the novel,

two hours ago.

If I were to highly recommend

you read the Tono Bungay,

YOU could have me arrested

for understatement.
***

I sincerely wish
Happy Googling
to anyone 
who has read this far  

________________________________________________________________________________________________