Ice Cream Headache: A Look Back — Part 1

Writing Ice Cream Headache, I was overcome with an enormous wave of nostalgia as I drew upon a trove of memories from my youth living in Oglesby, Illinois (1966-1976).

This story started out as poem about a young boy who goes to the Supreme Dairy Bar one day and has a milkshake. From that poem, it evolved into a flash fiction story, and finally a novella.

Living overseas for as long as I have, there are a lot of things I miss about being back in the States and a lot of memories that I have stored and filed away in my heart and soul to visit as many times as I need. As a writer, I have taken journeys like this many times, such as describing a scene at the Igloo in War Remains, but this journey back to Oglesby, when I was growing up there back in the 60s, was very near and dear to me.

And the story I would eventually tell about Ray, Jimmy, Johnny, Billy, Nancy, and Earl would become very near and dear to me as I drew upon actual events in my own life to tell their stories.