Once Upon an Attention Span: An All-Purpose Pub for the United States of Amnesia

by Jack Garvey

While others have used the term “United States of Amnesia,” Jack Garvey imagines it as an appetite to satisfy.

His lively new collection of memoirs, vignettes, reviews, and musings, Once Upon an Attention Span, wastes no time setting the table with a first entree titled “Wake-U-Ups.”

Entrée? Yes, Garvey has fashioned the book as “Attention Span Pub” with a “Menu” for a table of contents. Open 24/7, reservations are not required. They are redundant.

What better place to play host? What else to serve but food and drink?

And what better bill of fare than something for everyone? From cross-country “Repasts for the Road” with his daughter in the ‘80s, to commentary on current events stirred in “Teas that Tease,” and from the rock-and-roll of “Boomer Libations” to the “Dangerplay” of “Nostalgia’s Nightcaps,” the book comes as advertised in its subtitle.

An All-Purpose Pub for the United States of Amnesia addresses the book’s intended audience while hinting at its It is of, by, and for America—from the heartland to the bayou, from the World Series to the National Mall, from Moby-Dick to the Electoral College, from Ellis Island to the Rio Grande, from Paul Revere to Bernie Sanders, from colonial times to Covid-19, from a sandbar on the New England coast to the skyscrapers of Los Angeles.

Just as he cast his last collection, Keep Newburyport Weird, as an atlas with chapters as maps, and his busking memoir, Pay the Piper!, as a musical score with movements, Once Upon an Attention Span offers fare in every tempo from every region of the USA.

Whether you’re in for a feast or just a quick bite, you can return as often as you want. Go “Living in the Pasta” where Garvey connects history to the present just as a chef might season a sauce or layer a casserole. The analysis of “Old World Breakfast” and “New World Crunch” will satisfy any appetite that craves food for thought.

Prefer nutrition if you want, but good luck resisting the rich personal accounts of Garvey’s past life as an apple-picker or the high-calorie accounts that span fifty years in “Nostalgia’s Nightcaps.”

The kitchen closes with a “Midnight Toast” set at a Renaissance faire to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” Make your acquaintance with Once Upon an Attention Span, and any amnesia you may now have will be forgot and never brought to mind.

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2024

About the author

Jack Garvey (1951 - ) was born and raised in Lawrence, Mass., before attending Salem State University where his BA was delayed three semesters by the student newspaper, the anti-war movement, and other counter-culture activities. Unwilling to serve the Fort Kent, Maine, Chamber of Commerce as a reporter for the St. John Valley Times, he disappeared west of the Mississippi River, turning up as a graduate student and teacher of freshman composition at South Dakota State University, as a grant-writer for the United Tribes of North Dakota, as a vagabond on the West Coast, and as a busker in Denver.

Returning to Massachusetts after about eight years--the same time that the Prodigal Son returned to a fatted calf--Garvey landed north of Boston to resume busking in the coastal tourist towns of Newburyport and Salem while teaching as an adjunct instructor in colleges ranging from U-Mass Lowell to Northern Essex Community College. A year later, in 1983, he began writing guest columns for the Newburyport Daily News and the weekly Newburyport Current. In 1999 he joined King Richard's Renaissance Faire in Carver, Mass., where he continues to perform every fall as a strolling minstrel. He still writes for both papers and he has since included Lexington, Mass., and Portsmouth, N.H., on his busking circuit.

His daughter and son-in-law, Rain and Jon Michaels, who talked Garvey into forming Busker's Delight Press--and who run it because he doesn't have a clue--live in Burbank, California.