Translations:Chapter One Trey/57/zh-cn

Next door to my dad’s family home was something seemingly out of a fairy tale: a Norman-style brick-and-stucco house with stained-glass windows and a tower topped by a conical roof. It looked so different from the Craftsman bungalows around it that locals dubbed it the “castle.” My father’s journey to a bigger life began when he started hanging at the castle with the Braman family. Jimmy, the oldest of the sons, was my dad’s inseparable best friend growing up. My dad said he marveled at Jimmy’s ability to turn a crazy idea into reality, and the two spent their days dreaming up all kinds of schemes and businesses. They ran a hamburger stand in the front yard, started a circus in the backyard. It’s funny to think that kids paid to watch my shirtless dad lie on a bed of nails. They also published a newspaper—The Weekly Receiver—where for a few cents their seventy subscribers got news picked off the radio and scores from local school football and baseball games.

我爸爸老家的隔壁，有一栋宛如童话故事里的房子：那是一栋诺曼式砖石灰泥建筑，装有彩色玻璃窗，还带着圆锥屋顶的塔楼。整栋建筑和周围的工匠式平房截然不同，被当地人称为“城堡”。我父亲经常和城堡的主人——布拉曼（Braman）一家一起玩耍，人生道路也从此拓宽。布拉曼家的大儿子吉米（Jimmy），是我爸成长过程中形影不离的死党。我爸说，他特别佩服吉米总能把疯狂的想法变成现实，两人整天都在畅想各种计划和创业构想。他们在前院摆摊卖汉堡，在院子里举办马戏团表演——有趣的是，孩子们居然愿意花钱来看我爸光着膀子躺在钉床上。他们还发行了一份叫《接收者周报》（The Weekly Receiver）的报纸，为70位订户提供新闻，花上几美分，就能看到从广播电台精选的新闻内容，以及当地学校足球和棒球赛的比分。