Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 42

2.09 Toy Soldiers

1954-56 • San Jose ~ Mom was seldom around, and when she was, she wasn’t really “there.” She escaped into sleep, her black eye mask blocking out the world, her small feather pillow hiding her head, and her rounded body buried beneath her blanket. The pills she took didn’t help her either, lined up on her […]

2.08 “Sprouse as in House”

1954 • San Francisco ~ “Sprouse as in house, Reitz as in right” was the slogan used by the company my dad worked for. Nobody said Reitz right; they rhymed it with Pete’s. I always corrected them. Sometimes Dad drove to San Jose and picked me up to spend the holidays with him, and other […]

2.07 I Could Be Wrong

April 1954, Easter Vacation • San Francisco, California ~ I sat next to him on the #7 Haight bus as it wove through the city to the corner stop near his house. He lived just a block from the five-and-dime he managed on Haight Street, a red fronted Sprouse-Reitz. Together, we read every word in the […]

2.06 Southern California

March 1954 • Montebello ~ Carleen and Chuck left Sonora and Chuck went to work for National Tapered Wings in Vernon with his cousin Wayne Johnson. They rented a one-story triplex in a pretty tree-lined Jewish neighborhood in Montebello near Wayne and Joan, a tiny Italian spitfire of a woman. Wayne and Joan married in 1951, […]

2.05 Extra Prayers

1954 • San Francisco ~ I loved visiting my dad. We played Old Maid and gin rummy. He sang Three Little Fishies or German songs he remembered from his childhood, told me corny riddles, recited limericks, and magically pulled quarters from behind my ear. I even liked playing Five Little Piggies, though I was a […]

2.04 Uncle George Day

March 1954 • San Jose ~ Word reached Mom that her sister’s husband, George Day, died in Chico on February 17th. He too, like Mom, was high strung, and also like Mom, had suffered a nervous breakdown. March 23, 1954 • San Jose, a letter to Verda from Mom: Dear Verda,         […]

2.04 Uncle George Day, 1954

March 1954 • San Jose ~ Word reached Mom that her sister’s husband, George Day, died in Chico on February 17th. He too, like Mom, was high strung, and also like Mom, had suffered a nervous breakdown. March 23, 1954 • San Jose, a letter to Verda from Mom: Dear Verda,         […]

2.03 Small Talk

1954 • Sonora to San Francisco ~ Dad found a flat on Belvedere Street in the Haight and settled in San Francisco. He made one last trip back to the town that had been his life for the past decade. On a visit to the Davises, where Claudia was finishing out the eighth grade, he asked […]

2.02 Blackened Toast

1954 • San Jose ~ Mom still cooked and cleaned house for the priests. While she dusted and vacuumed the rectory, I starred in my own variety show, singing and doing the Hokey Pokey on the back patio where no one could see me. I had a red plastic portable record player and a record collection […]

2.01 Torn Pictures, San Jose 1954

 San Jose, San Francisco, Hawaii 1954 – 1957 1954 • San Jose, California ~ I’d reach up and rap the doorknocker twice. I’d say, knock, knock. She’d say, who’s there? I’d say, Cathy. She’d say, Cathy who? I’d say, Cathy me, silly, your daughter! Wouldn’t we laugh! I don’t recollect how I got there or who dropped me off […]