Archive for February 7th, 2010
1936
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
It was almost too
late in the first year
of the promising
new century that
she was born there in
arid Miami -
Oklahoma, not
humid Florida.
She grew fast, married
too quickly and then
had her first brood too
quickly too, at least
too quick to give them
enough attention
or try to save them
instead of the damned
farm, which blew away
to some far off state
that needed it worse.
Two she brought with her
when she headed east,
the other three were
left to grow up more
quickly than she had
and make their way in
the not very promising
world they were all of
a sudden facing.
It was in the post
office in D.C.
that she met Dad, who
had swum ashore to
safety when the big
Depression wave hit.
Nine months and two days
later I showed up
for what appeared to
be an even less
promising future,
although in that year,
1936,
Franklin Delano
Roosevelt again
was elected, “I’ve
Got You Under My
Skin” was a big hit,
and Jesse Owens
won four gold medals
at Hitler’s Berlin
Olympic Games. So
it really wasn’t
an entirely bad
year, I mean, what with
me being born, and
FDR, “Under
My Skin,” and Jesse
Owens being there
to help me along.
(Published in 1997 in the now-defunct George & Mertie’s Place, under the pseudonym, Bartlett Boswell)
Note: Total conjecture on my part about being born nine months and two days after they met, my father more than magnetically attracted to my attractive mother. That they were married hastily on a Sunday afternoon by a rabbi is another anomaly in my life – not Jewish, just in such a big hurry perhaps not to have their first-born a bastard (a name I’m still, however, often called). What was childhood like after 1936? Tough, but I wouldn’t trade mine with anybody, so full of adventure it was. Helped to have a rich imagination, which often took the place of money.
