"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be" (Browning)

.....Since these interviews that Robin taped for a college project are a part of history, it behooves us to publish a few on this blog.  The one for today is from my stepfather, Mike Kallman--my father's cousin, son of my grandmother's sister.  Mike married my mother in 1946.  She had been a single mom since 1933 when my father died.  I was a patient in a VA hospital at the time, and I have always suspected that the sudden marriage came about because my mother did not want to be a burden to me after I was discharged.  Nevertheless, Mike was a good soul and I have no reason not to believe that they were both happy in the marriage until he died.  In this interview Mike describes his job with the Army in WWI when he was about 16 and too young to enlist.  


....."In the first war, I wanted to do my share somehow, and I wasn't of age yet, so I got a job in Sandy Hook (NJ) and there was this proving ground t' prove all the big guns, all the guns, so I got a job there and, I think, for a salary of $19 a week, that was a lot of money, $19 a week.  And I had a special train, I'd have to go from the Highlands (NJ) they drove us right into Sandy Hollow, the government property.  So I got a job and the job consisted of picking up these here shells, loading them on trucks, bringin' them out to the guns to try them (out), to shoot it off, into the ocean they would shoot it.  And when they shot that gun off, they'd give you a signal, all yell 'under cover!'   And put your hands to your ears, you could hear the vibrations miles and miles away, see?  And from there, they gave up that, and they got more of a suitable place with more facilities...So they went to Aberdeen, Maryland about 25 miles away from Balt-ee-more, and I went along with them and we had a special train.  And they went from Sandy Hook and it took us two days to Maryland where now it's only a few hours.  Had t'sidetrack the train to let the regular trains go by.  It was the coldest year, that was 1917.  That was the beginning of the first war.  It was cold...And while I wasn't a soldier and I wasn't bound t' the gover'ment, I still felt that I was doing my duty...And I was assigned to a barrack with other civilians, and we lived just like the soldiers did.  We had a stove in the center of the barracks, big logs, and thin Army blankets, and we lived that way, we slept that way.  And we ate just like the soldiers did, we stood in line, but we wasn't reprimanded, disciplined or anything.  We went out when we wanted......"


.....I find this to be very interesting; don't even know if Mike ever graduated from high school.   Up until he married my mother he earned his living by being a bookie--but mom made him give that up and he got a job at the Monmouth Racetrack in Long Branch (NJ) as a ticket seller.  They settled in a comfortable, but small house, only about a block from the ocean.  They eventually came to live in my Glen Cove house, where I converted our large dining room into a bedroom for them.  I cannot remember why they had to come to us, but they did, and that's where Mike eventually died and my mother went to Florida with my sister and brother-in-law taking up residence in Century Village in Boca Raton.  And life does go on--and on.

"Hold Death awhile at arm's end." (As You Like It)

.....Yesterday with nothing much else to do while RH+ went lunching with her sister and sister-in-law I joined a neighbor, his wife & friend and drove to the Isle Casino in Pompano.  I can't tell why, but I've always been fascinated by slot machines--perhaps because of the sounds that they make; something akin to the sounds of the Sirens that Ulysses heard in Homer's "Odyssey"; the three goddesses that lured sailors to their death with the sound of their voices; they just suck you in--or for a better word, "sucker" you in.  I managed to lose.  But the entertainment and the expectation of hitting a jackpot was worth it, I suppose.  I keep telling myself that.  I hit a jackpot once; in Las Vegas.  It was about 1a.m. and Rho had gone up to bed.  After awhile, I decided to follow her, but not before playing a $5 slot for the first time in my life.  I put $5 in and lo and behold! The three wheels came up with the three red 7s--the $5000 jackpot!  But don't go away; I haven't ended the story.  Since I only put in $5 instead of three times that amount, I did not collect the jackpot.  I told Rhoda that story and she sent me back down to try again.  I won $500 and went to bed not knowing whether to be happy or benighted.


.....Speaking of the Sirens luring sailors to their deaths, on the way home from the casino, Lou asked me if I ever think about "mortality".  "Do you mean do I think about death and dying?"  "Yes," he said, and I replied, "Yes, at my age, of course I do--almost every day."  Am I in fear of it? No, I'm not. I am too busy enjoying the life I am leading now, and proud of the life behind me.  When it comes, it comes, and I can't do anything about it. As Hamlet says, 'the rest is silence'." 

.....Perhaps it not so bad to die at an advanced enough age, for people who live long enough may be ground down by life until they give up many of their goals.  Also they will have attained many of their aspirations.  If truly satisfied with having lived a full life, or we have given up because of ill health, or we lose our motivation for living, death ceases to be objectionable to us.  Perhaps death is bad for us only if premature in the sense that it comes when we still have interests or desires that propel us forward in life, and only if achieving them is a real prospect. We leave that to the young.  If we die and go to heaven, I suppose we've hit the jackpot--provided that we have put enough cash into life's casino.

"...the best laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" (Burns)

.....Back when Robin was in high school--or college, she had a project which required her to interview her grandparents and perhaps other relatives about their "olden days".  Some of these responses need to be kept for posterity before they get lost forever.  The following is a response from my mother about "the nickel caper".

" Well, I told you that the best years of my life were when I was a little girl, childhood.  I remember way back--between the ages of 6-14, truthfully were, I think, the happiest years of my life because like everyone else remembers we were very , very poor and I had absolutely all hand-me-downs, my sister's hand-me-downs and my father, he used to give us about a penny a week.  We came home from school and had bread and sugar for lunch.  We didn't  know what milk looked like.  And I was happy, 'cause I knew no other life.  One time, it was very, very cold, winter time; I went into the street.  And those days, all the rich kids had sleds.  I didn't have sled, y'know what I used, was a milk can, the milk cans with the covers?  And I'd sit on the cover and I'd go sliding, I enjoyed that, y'know I didn't have any toys or whatever.  Then, the thing that I remember vividly.  There was like  20 cents, there were four nickels in the ice, those years when it snowed, and snow piled real high, took months to clear away.  And I saw these four nickels in the ice.  And I started digging with my nails and fingers.  I couldn't get it up fast enough.  I finally found those nickels and I went out and I bought my two sisters and three brothers 2 cents candy--you could get about  20  pieces for a penny, those days.  And all through my childhood, I mean as a little girl, I enjoyed my life. 

.....It makes me heartsick to think that that was the only time in her life that she might feel once again that kind of happiness.  It was never to happen.  It reminds me of Robert Burn's poem, "To a Mouse" when the farmer says, "....but mousie, thou art blessed compared wi' me; the present only touches thee. But backward, och, I cast my 'ee on prospects drear, and forward tho' I canna see, I guess and fear."  There are several other stories from family members regarding events they could recall in their lives which might be of interest, and thus "blogged".    I'll think about it.