From KCRW and KCRW.

I'm Bob Carlson and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of peculiar,

memorable and fascinating stories and documentaries is part of KCRW's

Independent Producer Project, kind of a laboratory for independent radio producers, writers, and performers.

And on today's episode, two stories that each concern a man and his father,

though it's really more like a father-shaped hole,

because each story begins with the old man out of the picture.

We begin with a story from producer Christopher Johnson.

Like a lot of adults who come from an unhappy marriage,

his own memories of childhood mainly focus on the sad

and hard times.

So when Christopher sets off on a search, it's not just to find his missing father.

He wants to go back in time and hear about the happy years

before his own memories start, before things turn bad. It was the time when the

man and the woman who became his parents were just a young couple in love.

It's a story produced for unfictional on KCRW and KCRW.com.

I was about 16 when I attacked my dad in a courthouse parking lot down south.

After that, nearly 20 years of total silence.

When mom asked him for child support, she met some heavy resistance.

She and I once drove from the DC area down the Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he lived.

Mom wanted to plead her case in the state court. My mother and father stood before a judge who refused to enforce the child support order.

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