The first things I can remember

7/28/2019 The first things I can remember.

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My Earliest Memories

The night I was born, my dad and Granny Abbott went out on the town together and got pretty squiffy. At one pointDad boozily introduced Granny to the doorman at the Colony Club. When they finally got to the hospital theylearned that I had arrived, and Dad went and threw up in a linen closet.

They lived with Gaffer (my Dads father) inNew York for a while, and when Dad got asales job with Dickinson's Witch Hazel theymoved to Essex, Connecticut.

Jane Niles, who often worked for Granny Abbott's family, came to help take care of me. My mother (let's call herPolly) was always complaining she was too fat. Jane was thin and they joked that if Polly copied exactly what Jane ate

she'd be thin too. Polly smoked. Jane probably didn't. I think she may have been Canadian from Cobourg, Ontariowhere the family went in the summer. Both my parents' families summered there, and I think that's where myparents met. Aunt Nancy told me that just before my father got engaged to my mother, he took Nancy aside intosome bushes and practiced his proposal on her.

When the U.S. entered WWII, Dad, who had been in the Army Reserves, was called up. He and Mr. Dickinson werefriendly and he was promised his job when he returned. (But then, when he got back there was no job.)

While Dad was in basic training we moved to a couple of places in the South. The earliest memories I have are ofseeing a parade of little children going by the apartment house we stayed in. They were marching along in the dusk,chanting, "Air raid! Air raid! Air raid!" I wanted to go too, but I was too small. I had just had a bath and been put tobed in what I remember as a very high, grownup bed. I was nearly asleep when there was the most tremendouscrash! The bathtub from the floor above ours had fallen through the ceiling. There was plaster and lathe all over theplace and the upstairs tub lying crazily right on top of the one where I had just had a bath.

Granny Abbott came down to visit us there and would sit on the porch and knit little squares using leftover wool.When she had enough squares she'd crochet them together and make a blanket. I called them Granny's Quares.

After that we lived on Kershaw Street in the town near the army base, Fort Jackson, in Columbia, SC. I was made tomemorize the address and I still remember the street name. I went to Google, looked up the street, and found ahouse that looks eerily like the one we lived in. I remember a front porch. Ours had a bench on the side, and forsome reason 78 records had been left there. One day a lady came to visit. She sat down to wait for Polly who wasprobably in the bathroom or something, and CRACK! she landed right on the records. Those things were brittle.


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I was walked to my nursery school past a big building my mother toldme was the orphan asylum. I called it the Orcan Aslyum. I lost my firsttooth one day at nursery school. It hurt. I went home and was given aglass of milk and a sandwich at a little table. I was weepy from the painand the big hole where the tooth had come out, right in front. The waterheater had exploded that day, and every curtain in the house wascovered with soot. Granny Abbott was expected next day for a visit and

my poor mother had just washed and ironed all the curtains! They werethe white cotton kind with ruffles... I got zero sympathy. When she wasin a better mood she called me, "My little Lamb Chop."

My first friend was a tiny black woman, possibly a dwarf. She had beenhired to babysit for me, but I just thought she was there because she wasmy friend. Usually she had a ride to our house, but one day we droveher home. She lived in a sparse group of little wooden houses with dirtall around them instead of grass, and there was a well with a bucket inthe middle.

I'm not sure if it was the same woman, but my parents visited Granny and Poppy on Long Island during this timeand brought along a black woman to take care of me. They stopped overnight in Washington, D.C., and were veryupset that she wasn't allowed to eat with us in the restaurant and had to go somewhere else that catered to blackpeople. I remember them arguing that she was with them and there to take care of me, but it was no use.

I had a little baby carriage for my doll. One day we went to the grocery store. I waspushing my carriage. My mother had a shopping cart. I decided to help her shop.When we got to the checkout counter the baby carriage was riding low. It was full ofcans! I was not popular that day. My mother was afraid the store manager wouldthink we were stealing. I got scolded but I didnt really understand why.

My pink rubber doll Oscars arm popped out of its socket. I brought it to Daddy,convinced he could fix it, but he couldnt do it. But he did give me sips from his beer.My mother called him Bill so I called him Bill too. Later I found out the right namewas Daddy. Ever week morning he got dressed and left us. He said it was because hehad to go and crank the bread and butter machine.

We had a dog named Callie who had nine puppies. One of them would only move backwards. I don't know whathappened to them, or to Callie, but she got into a neighbor's chickens and after that... no Callie.

One afternoon, playing by myself, I decidedto climb on top of the car. It was aconvertible and I fell right into the backseat, scaring myself into howls. I was fine,but the soft top was ruined. My parentswere very upset about the top.

The took me with them one night whenthey went out. I was delighted because theygot the tiny white horse from their whiskey

bottle and gave it to me. On the way back Iwas frightened. I didnt know what it was,but told them I had a mouse in my leg. Ihad been sitting on my mothers lap andmy leg had gone to sleep and was allprickly.

Dads training was over, and he shipped out.My mother and I moved to an apartment in New York. At night on the train north, we had a bunk together, andcould look out the window. The train would pull into a station and passengers would get on and off, but we were


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lying, hidden by a curtain, and could see out in the darkness. Porters with baggage carts and people were coming andgoing and there were lights and mysterious noises. It was very exciting.

From our apartment In New York I could look down and seebuses going along the street below. I wondered how thedoor on the bus got onto the other side when the bus cameback down the street. I had a pair of little red shoes with a

strap across the instep that buttoned down. I took one shoeand made it be the bus. When it got to the end of the imaginary street I turnedthe shoe around and the button (that was the door) was magically on the otherside. I also had trouble figuring out that although the windshield wipers in thecar looked as if you could catch them, they were on the other side of the glassand you couldn't.

My mother's youngest sister Aunt Nancy shared the apartment for a while. Mymother was volunteering as a nurse's aide in a uniform with a pinafore with widestraps that buttoned in the back, and a cap. Her feet hurt and when she camehome she soaked them in hot water and Epsom Salts. She liked to read in bed atnight and would cover the bedside light with a silk scarf so as not to wake me.One night it caught on fire! Then I got a lesson on crawling under hypothetical smoke and putting a wet towel overmy head to breathe under.

Kindergarten was at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. We had nap time, but I disrupted it and was exiled to the hallon my nap blanket for misbehaving. I still remember how deeply insulted I was by this. After all... I was only retellingthe entire story of Red Riding Hood to the other kids.

Muddy Abbott, my great grandmother, was in New York for the winter, and I wastaken to visit her. I was sitting beside her in her bed and she asked me what I had beendoing. I told her I was going to kindergarten. She didn't like that at all because it was aGerman word.

I saved every scrap of tinfoil -- the wrappers for candy or gum, for instance -- "for the

war effort." I had quite a big ball of it eventually. I lost another tooth and sent it to Billencased in a huge wad of adhesive tape for safety! I wonder if my tooth made it all the

way to Germany.

Dad's sister, Aunt Gretchen, was living in New York then with Gaffer. She came overone day and found me hiding under a table in the hall. My mother was drunk and out

cold in the bedroom. She took me back to their apartment at 1088 Park Avenue, and I stayed there for a while. Itwas on about the fifth floor and you could look down on one side into a little courtyard in the middle of the building.

There was a bicycle room full of bicyclesand large toys to the right of theentrance, and the halls had a typicalNew York smell of dry oil-painted walls.Gaffer would take me for walks inCentral Park. We visited the zoo. Thepenguins were fun to watch and had a

water slide. Gaffer would call thesquirrels to come to be fed peanuts bytapping his cane on the ground. Mycousin David Thomas, Aunt Gret's son,was there then too, but was too old for me to relate to. His sister Rhoda was away atschool. David teased me a lot. He had a model ferry boat. I thought it was a fairyboat and couldnt understand the difference. I remember watching Gaffer shave. Heused an old fashioned straight razor and a leather strop. The shaving cream had a

little brush to make it foamy, and he used old fashioned tooth powder to brush his teeth. Hed pour a little pile of itinto his hand and dip into it with his wet toothbrush.


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Travel was accomplished by taxicab. Some of them were large, and had jump seats so that you could fit four peoplein the back. These seats folded flat into the floor behind the drivers seat. There were buses and subways, but I dontever remember taking them until I grew up and went back to visit.

Polly took me to see the Disney version of Pinocchio. I loved it, but when the whale came leaping toward us on thescreen I went right under the seat. We also went to see the circus. You could buy a chameleon on a string, or pin, and

it would change color to match whatever you were wearing. Until the poor thing died, of course. We had two tinyturtles called "Peggy" and "Franklin." Tragically, they escaped into the kitchen and were nowhere to be found. Aftera while Polly noticed an odd hump in the linoleum. She pulled it up and there were Peggy and Franklin, perfectlyfine! These little turtles used to be sold at Woolworth's, and other places. Usually they had colorful decals stuck to

their shells. The turtles were found to carry salmonella and are no longer sold. I haven't seen achameleon sold like that since 1945.

My favorite food was fruit cocktail. It came in a can in syrup. I lived for the cherry and would save itfor last.

At about that time I had my tonsils out. I remember going to the doctor and having to pee into aspecial basin like a tray inside the toilet. I was told that I was having my tonsils out and next thing I knew I woke upin a big white bed, in a room by myself. I had the worst sore throat I can remember -- as bad or worse than when Ihad a strep throat in my 20s. I couldn't swallow and there was nobody there to tell, so I just spat under my pillow. Ofcourse they found a big slimy swamp and I was grumped at, but I was only six! Afterward, I was taken to stay atHitherbrook and installed in the blue front room to recuperate. About a week after the operation my mother cameinto my room and found me crying miserably. She asked me why. I had been promised ice cream when I had mytonsils out and I never got any! They had promised! I finally got some vanilla ice cream, but somehow it wasn't asgood as it would have been if they had remembered in the first place.

This may have been the moment it was decided we should move out to Hitherbrook on Long Island and joinGranny, Poppy, Aunt Hopie and Peter to wait out the war.

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The first things I can remember