![](https://www.elinornauen.com/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBN3B0QVE9PSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--7cb25bd60decdc9b20114676384216c2f9f1a9ba/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCem9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lKYW5CbFp3WTZCa1ZVT2hSeVpYTnBlbVZmZEc5ZmJHbHRhWFJiQjJrQzRBRnBBdUFCIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--8baca904b64d4717b73c68c7de6fd7f38b987845/me_CARS_1.jpeg)
A page from my first book, CARS & other poems. Long-lost Sam on the left, & me age 19, dressed for a hippie wedding.
When I was an 18-year-old hitchhiker, I had a mission: to find the best hot fudge sundae in the world (really, the Midwest). I ran out of appetite pretty early on, having never really been a collector, but not before the prize went to a diner on the outskirts of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
It was good to have a goal.
Some things were easier then. For example, no one had invented multitasking.
Some things were harder. At least now I no longer have to decide whether to keep studying Sanskrit (nope), become a cobbler (good heavens, not anymore), break up with so-and-so (yes! what was I thinking? yes!).
I get to keep tons of memories (& pounds from all those hot fudge sundaes) but they weighs less than the brooding quandariness of my early adulthood.
So happy on a sunny Sunday.
It was good to have a goal.
Some things were easier then. For example, no one had invented multitasking.
Some things were harder. At least now I no longer have to decide whether to keep studying Sanskrit (nope), become a cobbler (good heavens, not anymore), break up with so-and-so (yes! what was I thinking? yes!).
I get to keep tons of memories (& pounds from all those hot fudge sundaes) but they weighs less than the brooding quandariness of my early adulthood.
So happy on a sunny Sunday.