Caution: Some Parts May Be Accurate!: An Autobiography in Random Short Stories

Herewith a sort of autobiography. Readers should remain at all times actively aware that autobiography is a particularly insidious form of fiction regardless of the author's intent or efforts to be "objective" and "accurate". This tome came about because a friend remarked, "Jeez, you've done a lot of stuff in your life!" That induced me to sit down and compile a list of interesting, weird, significant or otherwise memorable events - some of them may contain lessons, others are pretty much 100% for their amusement or historical value. Although one might see several underlying 'themes' in the stories, in fact the list verges on being random both in sequence and topic. Any 'themes' are the result of the human mind's insistence on finding pattern even where there is none.Why "a sort of"? Because unlike the usual autobiographical layout, with regards to timeline the text is utterly nonlinear and mostly chaotic. Also, because many of these vignettes are pulled from my stockpile of "favorite tales to tell" when folks (especially, but certainly not exclusively, male) are gabbing (a.k.a. "swapping lies") and guzzling wine or beer. Because such tales inevitably take on lives of their own (many of mine are approaching 60 years of age, a few are older still), drifting, morphing, accumulating words, nuances, subsidiary or parallel events ... until whatever truth one began with is at best fuzzy indeed. To a greater or lesser extent such stories are fiction. (I personally think that for most of us humans "greater" is the proper adjective.) In fact, some of the stories herein are entirely fictional - the reader may try to divine which so qualify.Why "some parts may be accurate"? I have confirmed this poor opinion of my own memory's veracity by having other people (siblings, friends, fellow students, etc), who are knowledgeable of certain events, read and comment upon various stories. Reactions have ranged from "I don't remember that event at all!" to "Eric, that is simply WRONG!" I have taken such commentary under advisement: some changes resulted. For many of the stories, I am now the only surviving participant, hence no outside verification is possible.