ONE OF FOUR
by
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MOTHER’S TRAGIC DEATH It was July, 1935, and I had turned six. As the weeks of July rolled by I was enjoying the childhood preoccupation of play. Late on a warm July 28th afternoon Jerry, who was now a little over four months old, was asleep in the living room on the sofa. It seemed to me that he slept a lot; but while he was asleep, he was not crying or requiring attention of one kind or another. Raymond and I were playing on the living room rug. Later, I was to learn that Richard was with a friend who lived across the alley. Dad was still at work at the Railroad. Since it was late in the afternoon it was time for Mama to begin to think about getting something for supper. I was startled by a deep booming noise that came from the back of the house. The house shuddered. Almost instinctively, Raymond and I ran out the front door. Soon a crowd had gathered around the house, and the fire trucks with their flashing lights and screaming sirens came to a stop behind our house. Raymond and I wandered around to the back of the house where most of the commotion seemed to be. Someone said that Jerry had been carried out the front door by a neighbor. I was now aware that Richard was standing with Raymond and me. We were jostled by the crowd of people, who were watching the fire and all of the activity of the firemen. We couldn’t see much of what was happening because of the smoke and all of the neighbors who pushed their way in front of us. The ambulance came and went. We did not know that Mama was carried from the kitchen and taken to the hospital, nor did we know that Dad had been called at work to come home. For the three of us boys it was like standing on an island surrounded by a huge wall of confusion and the acrid smell of smoke. I do not remember anyone telling us what was happening or even acknowledging our presence until after the fire engines had left. It was a time of drifting, overwhelming uncertainty and growing fear. Our house had become unlivable. Everything was a major mess. Windows were broken or smoke-covered. Pieces of debris were somewhat blackened and scattered in the backyard. The entire kitchen had been gutted by the explosion and charred by the fire. The whole house was filled with the acrid smell of smoke.
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About the Book
The Great Depression was a powerful force that significantly altered the lives of everyone it touched. The effects were always pronounced and life-long. Destinies often were shifted. Through a collection of vignettes this autobiographical story of the first twenty-one years of a young boy’s experiences, and those of his brothers, is told in the setting of those Depression years.
The loss of their mother in a tragic death had a deeply emotional impact on the four sons. Out of the uncertainty and disorientation of a motherless home, these four boys, ages four months to eight years, eventually found them-selves under the care of an aunt who later became their stepmother in a home that had only a weekend father. The human chemistry in this family was fraught with conflict, confrontation, hope, lies, isolation, rejection, kindness, sex, deception, joy, avoidance, fun, withdrawal, greed, and pathos. It was in this setting that the four boys were able to find strength within and among them to cope and endure. This is a tragic story, a compassionate story, and, yes, a humorous story of four boys learning to “make lemonade out of lemons” in an environment where “providing for” was offered as a substitute for parental love.
About the Author
As a youth I learned to appreciate poetry. I had a teacher in high school that was enamored with poetry, and he had a winning way of passing his enthusiasm for verse on to me. While I was in the military, I had an excellent opportunity to describe in letters the beauty and wonder of After I completed my military obligation, my writing underwent a series of transitions from poetry, to grants, and then to professional journal articles. Over the years of my varied career I have written numerous published journal articles and collaborated in 1984 on a book, A Handbook of Educational Variables. One of Four represents my first effort of published auto-biographical writing. A second book, depicting the period of time I spent in