Anthology: A Collection of Three Short Books by Bob Brackin

By Bob Brackin

Anthology is a collection of three short books. Gainesville Stories and Christmas Stories are prose memoirs. Three And Out is 71, four-line poems.

The author lived in Gainesville, Florida from 1965-1968 & 1969-1970 and Gainesville Stories is 37 (short) recollections of people, places, events and the times in general.

Christmas Stories is 19 (again) short remembrances of Christmases from the authors earliest recollection up to the present.

Three And Out is a series of rhyming poems that the author said kind of poured out of him and said he just wrote until he was finished.

Anthology could have been titled Three by One, which it is, and the author hopes you enjoy one, two or all three.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781410733740

Bob Brackin

Bob Brackin lives in Orlando, Florida. He’s a 1975 graduate of the University of Central Florida, with a B.A. degree in English.

Book preview

Homecoming

I was at a University of Florida Homecoming party on Friday evening at a one-story apartment complex on the outskirts of town.

I was with my blind date, who was my age and was from out of town. She was the younger sister of the girlfriend of one of my college brother’s friends.

She was nice and I was kind of shy about it and I was on my own. (My brother and his date and the friend and his date—the girl’s older sister—had gone off for a while.)

A guy at the party (who knew my brother) went into the kitchen and was insisting on making me another drink. (I found out later he thought it was funny and was trying to get me drunk.)

I heard one of the girls at the party saying something to her boyfriend about not letting her down.

He said he wouldn’t let her down because she was his way to the top.

Ho Hum

I was in the stands and everybody in the stadium knew what was coming.

The Gators had the game in hand and the right wideout Charlie Casey was one catch from a reception record.

Spurrier dropped back and threw a sideline pass that was on target for a completion and Charlie had his record.

The Pass

I was in the one-room (cheap) brick cottage with my brother in the afternoon and we were listening to the Gators game on the radio.

(My dad was in the Navy and he, my mom and sister were still overseas. I was in high school and living with my brother who went to the University of Florida.)

My brother had a friend who was a pre-med student who lived in a trailer up the highway who studied all the time. But today he was at the game.

He’d actually taken some time away from studies and gotten a student ticket and was at the game.

He was from Jacksonville and he talked all the time (it seemed) about one of the Gators quarterbacks who was also from Jacksonville.

He was Harmon Wages and he was a big, blond, handsome guy who was known as Charmin Harmon.

My brother’s friend always said how Harmon could throw a pass 70 yards.

On that particular day the Gators were ahead and Harmon was getting some playing time and sure enough he throws a pass for a long touchdown.

My brother’s friend had to pass our group of cottages on his way home and we knew he’d be stopping by.

We were broke most of the time and didn’t have much money for extras but we did get out some old white T-shirts and put Harmon’s number (I think it was 16) on the front with a magic marker.

We put on our jerseys and strung toilet paper all over the room and waited and sure enough in a little while he showed up and knocked on our door.

The Animal

I was at Florida Gym on a Saturday afternoon in a pick-up game with my brother.

The facility was on the University of Florida campus. At one end was the large gymnastics area with wrestling mats, rings, parallel and uneven bars and horse.

A curtain partition separated it from the basketball court where the Florida Gators basketball team played.

In the off hours the gym was open for general student use and my brother and I went there on weekends to play in one of the numerous pick-up games