Papa Ron’s reading

from the diary: “Sunday 2/14/88

“Went to Papa Ron’s this eve. For the poetry reading. Just about everyone in the room got up and read. Some good readers – tho’ not enough good writing. Too many droned on and one with long poems. Nice to see Lew and Amy, and Jeni was there brought by Cath. Also JJ who seemed a bit peeved by the lack of audience reaction to her work. There was a guy name Mark – last name don’t know – whose stuff was very good; some nice punch-lined stuff. I got a good number of compliments on my reading. I read twice – once in the beginning when there were only five folks and at end I got to finish over shouts of ‘Closing!’ Quite a number of folks. And just about all of them read.”

Papa Ron’s was a little café across the street from the junior college. Mom was sometimes letting me borrow the car so I was able to attend evening events outside Sebastopol without her.