Clown Town, is true story/social Chicago history of a baby boomer’s struggle with death phobia filtered through a child’s perspective.

The title refers to an imaginary world created by the young protagonist, Pudgie, to pacify his younger friend’s curiosity about the real world of school. 

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taken from the
—Prologue—

Sunday, 3:15 a.m.

My wife, Dorinda, hates the sound of a ringing phone, especially when we’re asleep, so the ringer is turned off on our bedroom telephone.  I hear it in the next room, and instinctively I sit up and pivot my body so that my feet land on the cool hardwood floor. My hands feel my way through the thick darkness, and I hope that I don’t step on one of the four sleeping dogs on my way to it.  The answering machine is set to engage after the fourth ring, and I have invented this obsessive game of answering the phone before then.

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Lou Macaluso writes and speaks on motivational topics including: No Teacher Left Behind and Those Death Defying Baby Boomers.  Lou is a writer, English teacher, public speaker, former coach, triathlete, former union president and current president of Clown Town Communications Company.  He currently lives with his wife, Dorinda, and their three dogs in Chicago. read more