How It All Got Started
Author: Bill Roberts
I imagine my father said to my mother
something like, “Would you care to do it?
Go upstairs and start a family?”
No, it couldn’t have been that way.
There was no upstairs to their two-
room apartment in pre-war D.C.
Probably more on the order of
“Hey, good looking. Let’s make a baby!”
Naw, my father didn’t talk like that.
He was kind of shy, probably
came at Mom from an angle: “After
dinner, I thought we might, you know…”
Nope, it didn’t happen like that either.
Probably after cooking dinner and
washing dishes, my mother confronted
him and stated, quite to the point: “Say,
handsome, I’m in the mood. How’s
about putting down that stupid book.”
(Published in the Fall 2001 issue of Concrete Wolf, Vol. 1, No. 3)
Note: Starting off the New Year/2010 with a piece of humor, but maybe a factual report on my humble beginning. 1935, when I was conceived, wasn’t any better than 1936 when I arrived on a cold day in February. As I’ve been told, I really didn’t want to come out, preferred remaining in warm, cramped quarters. Now here it is, 2010, all of seventy-three years later and, voila, it’s sort of like 1936 again, though survivors of The Depression have said “This ain’t nothin’.” Well, it’s surely something, but slowly, surely, and with a generous topping of hope, we’ll come out of this stronger than ever. No, maybe not stronger, but hopefully wiser. If you’re into praying, pray that our leaders learn from past mistakes, one being, it’s easier to start a war than finish it. Been some damned dumb mistakes made in this last decade, mainly by people who should have known better. End of sermon: Happy Year 2010, to one and all.
