An American Male Age 10....

"The American Male at Age 10" story by Susan Orlean was actually a really good story. It took me back to the time when I was 10 years old (which is probably right around the same time or just before when she was following this Colin around. It really made me think about my own life experiences back then and how much they actually seemed similar to Colin's and how different they were as well. I personally wasn't a huge gamer but I did enjoy playing them from time to time. My favorites were Super Mario Brothers and Contra just because I knew the secret code to getting infinite lives in Contra --(up,down,up,down,left,right,left,right,b,a,b,a) -- I will never forget it. I spent quite a bit of time though playing with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and G I Joes. I must have had almost every character from the cartoons and movies. There were so many hours spent playing with the neighbor boys and our toys that girls were generally the last things on our mind. Recycling wasn't a huge part of life back then as it is today but I do remember joining the clean up crew at my elementary sohool and picking up the garbage and what nots that shouldn't have been there. This was also the point in my life when I moved from Texas to Montana to be closer to the relatives since my father was getting out of the Army. It was such a free time when you could grow up to be whatever you wanted to be and you didn't have the worries of job security or money hanging over your head. You could be friends with anyone you wanted and no one cared cause it was just one more person to hand out with.

That being said I truly did enjoy her take on the story. I didn't feel like she was trying to over-power the story with her side of things really that often. She did throw herself in there a few times like at the beginning when she talked about how if they were to get married what would happen or when Colin goes around trying to shoot her with his sling shot. What 10 year old boy just wants to sit there and be quizzed about what is going on in lfe?? It provided the reader with some more emotion and kept you wanting to read some more and see what happens to this kid and the story. Otherwise I felt that she really took the backseat and left Colin's story play out on the paper. She was very objective and didn't just drill you with the information that she collected but instead made you think about yourself when you were that old. Now being older and going through the worries of jobs, money, school again and just life itself -- this was a really refreshing trip back down to memory lane for me.