or How I learned to Walk Straight (Radio Narration)

Our tale begins on a brilliant and crisp autumn afternoon in the early 1960s. The Chiffons are shubiduing with “One Fine Day,” a love song full of pathos and longing. Our 13-year-old narrator is listening to the music on her transistor radio and dreaming of Mark, the gorgeous and very unattainable captain of her junior high school’s basketball team. But more than anything else, she’s dreaming of overcoming her pigeon-toes and getting rid of her orthopedic shoes. If so, she might possibly make it to the cheerleaders and pom-pom her way into Mark’s heart.

The day finally arrives on which it looks as if all her dreams will come true. But as luck will have it, disaster strikes! On this day, not only are the small dreams of a 13-year-old destroyed, but the big dreams of an entire nation too.

One Fine Day presents a tongue-in-cheek snapshot of American teenagers in the early 1960s, as well as insight into an event of earth-shattering and tragic significance to millions around the world: the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

One Fine Day has been adapted for the stage as a one-woman show, as well as for German television as a TV movie. In 1992 it was published as a classroom reader for learners of English. Lastly, it was inspiration for the novel Mein kleines großes Leben (Memoirs of an Ex-Cheerleader ­­– working title).