Filed Under: "My Friend Charlie"

“I’m making a list of things not to do!” Charlie was writing on paper. “It will help me stay out of trouble. Whenever I think of something I want to do, I’ll just look and see if it is on this list. If it is, I won’t do it.” “Things Not To Do,” detail, My Friend Charlie (1964, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.)

Flora was a failed architecture student. He had to forego a scholarship to the Boston Architectural League in 1933 due to Depression-era financial constraints—he was too tired to attend classes after shifts as a busboy. (“I earned seven dollars a week plus meals and had to work the entire day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This meant that I could not attend classes. Late in October the school said they could no longer hold my scholarship open.”)…