LATE SUMMER in much of the country, if not the world, is a time of sunny days combined with cooling evenings. A sign that time moves on, all good things come to an end. Evening becomes not just a time for fading melancholy sunsets, but also wistfulness– which may, on occasion, lead into nostalgia. Nostalgia for what was, and may someday be again.

It’s in that spirit of latent nostalgia that we present a glimpse at the 1950’s in the form of a short story by Nick Gallup, “Growing Up Is Hard to Do.” A story about high schools and homecomings, ballroom dancing and football teams, with a touch of innocence and romance.

BUT– along with nostalgia for a brief moment in time free from the many turmoils, hectic pace and strife which mark the world and everyday life now, can we have nostalgia, perhaps, for a lost art? Namely, for short stories which connect with everyday readers, as they once did. As Nick Gallup said in a tongue-in-cheek “WARNING” note accompanying the text of his story:

If you’re looking for pretentious Master of Fine Arts BS, please look elsewhere. I didn’t catch my mother having sex with my uncle, nor do I believe I can go blind from excessive masturbation. So, don’t look for any deep emotional meaning in this story. It is intended to be self-effacing and hopefully evoke a laugh or two. If you’re looking for a literary experience, I suggest you fork over $200 and subscribe to “The New Yorker” and be bored out of your freaking mind. 

At New Pop Lit we believe that terrific short stories, if not necessarily “literary,” are literature. We could point to any number of past ones– the Saturday Evening Post stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald for instance, which were written strictly as entertainment. A good example being the Basil and Josephine stories, which carry a wistfulness, a sense of feeling, of humor and life, which transform them into art. If anything can be called art.

Nick Gallup has written some terrific stories. We hope you enjoy another example, which we’re pleased to publish.