Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 55

1.04 Lucky Strike Girl

1945 • Sonora ~ At five, Betty opened her first business. She admired the ads featuring Lucky Strike girls wearing long gloves, short skirts, high heels, and satin pillbox caps, and particularly applauded the ingenuity of the lacquered trays they carried like a personal shelf supported by a strap encircling their pretty necks. Getting up early […]

1.4 Lucky Strike Girl

1945 • Sonora ~ At five, Betty opened her first business. She admired the ads featuring Lucky Strike girls wearing long gloves, short skirts, high heels, and satin pillbox caps, and particularly applauded the ingenuity of the lacquered trays they carried like a personal shelf supported by a strap encircling their pretty necks. Getting up early […]

1.03 A Chicken and a Dog

Mid 1940s • Sonora, California ~ Larry and Carleen went everywhere together. They were a year apart (he was born in 1934, she in ’35) with the same dark brown hair and brown eyes. When he was four Larry wore an eye patch, and in first grade, glasses. He had a lazy eye, the only […]

1.3 A Chicken and a Dog

Mid 1940s • Sonora, California ~ Larry and Carleen went everywhere together. They were a year apart (he was born in 1934, she in ’35) with the same dark brown hair and brown eyes. When he was four Larry wore an eye patch, and in first grade, glasses. He had a lazy eye, the only […]

1.2 104 Green Street

1943 • Sonora, California ~ My father first took a job as manager of the Sprouse-Reitz on Washington Street. Mom came in and helped out. She was ten years younger than Dad. Her hair was jet black like her mother’s and grandmother’s, and she wore red lipstick and a wide smile. He was the boss, quiet spoken, […]

1.1 Part I, Faded Snapshots, Sonora

1943 • Sonora, California ~ Emerging from the crown of Highway 49 and a mile from end to end, the town of Sonora is tucked into the foothills and ravines of the Sierra Nevada, the gateway to California’s gold mining region. In the mid 1800s it was a whirlwind of change, a booming and often lawless […]

0.iii Prologue

Audio: Prologue (click arrow to listen)   My brother Larry was under the illusion that our mother was a good mother, but he had a different childhood than the rest of us. My sisters were convinced otherwise: Carleen complained Mom was thoughtless and self-centered, Betty resented her for abandoning us, and Claudia simply thought she […]

0.ii Dedication, Billet-Doux, Credits

 Dedicated To my siblings: this memoir is for them. To Stephanie Moore: who directed her students with grace, gratitude, and courage. And to Michael Naumer: who warned, “sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.” Writing a book is not a solitary event, and this one would not have emerged without my friend and teacher, Stephanie Moore. […]

0.i Poem, Lineage, Table of Contents

  Teller of Tales This tale is a history, a fable, a prayer of those gone before me, now gathered with care. The diaries and pictures and letters enclosed deciphered my kin and what they supposed. Those who are living, their stories intact, Those gone before us, who knows what was fact? I met not […]

0.3. Any Given Door: Prologue

Audio: Prologue (click arrow to listen)   My brother Larry was under the illusion that our mother was a good mother, but he had a different childhood than the rest of us. My sisters were convinced otherwise: Carleen complained Mom was thoughtless and self-centered, Betty resented her for abandoning us, and Claudia simply thought she […]