Teenage Diaries Revisited Listen to Frankie's diary 16 years later »

Welcome Home, Dad

Frankie always thought his family was pretty normal until the day the FBI showed up. His dad had been hiding from the law for 15 years, and Frankie had no idea.

“I was coming home from school. I got off the school bus. My Dad and Mom were in the kitchen fixing a waffle iron. And about 10 minutes after I got off the bus, all these cops pulled in our yard. And my Dad looked out the window and he looked at our family in the kitchen. And he said, he loves us and he’ll never forget us.” This story originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 1997.

Football

Frankie’s second audio diary follows his season playing running back for the Valley Head Tigers.
“In the seventh grade, I was real little, probably weighed 75 pounds. Everybody used to pick on me all the time. They picked on me and beat the crap out of me everyday…Then one day, my ninth grade year, I decided to play football. Now, at school, I can’t go out in the hall without somebody touching me and saying, ‘Hey Frankie, good luck tonight.’ I mean it’s just crazy. I can’t believe everybody likes me as much as they do. It’s like the old me is dead and then I was born again or something.” This story originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 1997.