April 9, 1930............
The bare beginnings
The story is told, that one day, my dad came home from kindergarten and proudly announced to his mother that he had that day met the girl he was going to marry. And he did, talk about a marriage made in Heaven. I was born in Bronxville NY, At the Bronx Memorial Hospital, on April 9th, 1930, in the midst of the great depression, after a very difficult pregnancy on my mom's part. Although of normal weight, I was born very sick. Soon Dr. Hodgkin found then trouble; I had a huge abscess in my right butt. When Dr Hodgkin's lanced it, a great mass came out. It is said that I lost 20% of my birth weight, but I survived. Now that you all know that I was born full of it, I would like to share with you some of my wonderful life story. As young baby, I was a sickly little tyke, but very plucky. I spent forever in my crib, with a tent of sheets over me, breathing steamy air with menthol fumes, fighting for every breath. It seems that I suffered from a chronic case of pneumonia. But that was soon to change.We all lived in a great big old 3 story Victorian house right next door to the Electric Inventor, Dr. Steinmetz with my maternal grandparents, and my mom's 2 sisters, Georgia, and my favorite, aunt Teanie. I didn't get to know her long, because she passed away in the influenza epidemic of 1933. So there were plenty of people to bring me through the pneumonia. Nothing seemed to work, remember this was in the days before all the wonder drugs of today. One rainy Friday night, a small starving and bedraggled puppy followed my grandfather home from the railroad station at the foot of our street in Mount Vernon NY. When he arrived home with that wet ball of fur, he said to grandma, this puppy needs a friend, why don't you clean him up, and feed him, and then lets introduce him to Skipper, Soon he was washed, dried, and fed, and they brought him up to my crib. Suddenly, I had a wiggily, squirming face licking puppy in with me that was the start of a companionship that lasted some 16 years. The effects on me were almost unbelievable. Suddenly, I was breathing better, and within a week, I was strong enough to be up and about, and Teddy was constantly at my side. I swear, we understood each other, if I just thought, Teddy, come. He would wake up if he were sleeping and run to my side. When he needed to go outside, he would bring dad his leach. At night, when he was hungry, Mom would say, go get your can of dog food. Teddy would open the basement door, go down stairs, open the can closet, get his can, shut the can closet door, and bring up the food and lay it at her feet. Never, ever did he make a mistake and bring up tomatoes, or any other can. He always got the right can, and shut all the doors. If, when grandma was cooking in the kitchen and needed help getting the roast out of the oven, she would say, Teddy, go get Gramps, add off he would go to find him. When he did, he would sit facing him, and just stare right into gramps eyes, and gramps would walk into the kitchen and say Teddy said you needed help. So what can I do? He was uncanny, the way he could communicate with us and us with him. Every summer the whole family would go to the summerhouse at Squam Lake in New Hampshire. Gramps had a place in a cove just under Red Hill where we would stay for 2 months, with the menfolk spending the week working in New York, and commuting on the weekend until their vacation time, when they could stay with us. I learned a lot about Indian lore and woodsmanship in those early years, I remember one weekend in 1933, when, somehow, I managed to get out of my screened in crib, when everyone was taking an after lunch nap. I wandered out of the house, all by myself, down onto the dock, and promptly fell into the water while bending over to watch the fish. It was very cold, and over 6 ft deep. I screamed from the cold shock, and everybody came running, Teddy got there first and dove right in. He grabbed me by the collar when mom arrived She was already to leap in, when dad stopped her, Let Teddy finish the job, He's doing just fine, and doesn't need any help. He dragged me clear of the water, right up onto the grass and proceeded to wash my face with his tongue. He saved my life!In the summer of 1936,befor we left for the lake, one Sunday morning, I was playing on the front lawn with Teddy, when I found a hole that flying ants were swarming out of. I called dad to come see what I had found. He said, those are termites, and went and got an empty coffee can which he put some gas in from the gascolater of his Model A sitting at the curb. I watched as he poured it down the hole, and the termites stopped coming out. Soon, I found another hole, probably the back door that the termites were swarming out of. Dad got some more gas, and I stood right in front of him as he started to pour it down the hole. Suddenly, there was a flash, and a burst of pain swept over me, dad had jumped too, and in doing so threw the gas right in my face. I was on fire! I turned and ran away as fast as I could, trying to get as far away from the heat and pain as I could. I looked back over my left shoulder, and all I could see was 3ft long flames. I looked to my right, all the wile screaming at the top of my lungs, I really was in pain, just in time to see my friend George, the colored house boy come out on the front porch as I streaked by. I have never seen a black man turn so white as George did, as his eyes rolled back an he fainted and fell down the stairs. About then, dad tackled my smothering the flames. He gathered me in his arms, and raced for the car, handed me in to mom, who held me as dad raced for the hospital in Bronksville. I was rushed into the emergency room where I stayed for several days. My skin was blackened, and pealing off. I had over 70% third degree burns, then considered fatal.
