A heavy burden to bear (x5).
It was 1950, a very good year. The now-perfectly nuclear Marion
Family of 4 was living in an apartment on Linwood Avenue in Detroit,
a city that was then quite solidly in its prime.
Click below to see what that hallowed apartment building looks like now:
What can't be seen in this shot (unless you do
some scrolling to the right) is that the Lodge Freeway, which hadn't yet
been constructed, now runs literally right next to --
or north of -- this ediface. (Fortunately, we got the hell out of there
and moved over to 11485 Christy before the bulldozers moved in.)
Additionally, the State of Michigan Historical site sign, denoting the apartment
as my former residence, sadly, has been ripped off the southeast lower corner fascia
(and was likely melted down for its scrap metal value).
A final thought on this, my 61st birthday: 9 pounds, 14 ounces. I am so terribly, awfully,
belatedly sorry, Mom. Perhaps, it was the fried Spam that Dad developed an uncontrollable
addiction to after eating untold cans of it during the 52 months he was
held captive by the war effort. Maybe you, too, developed a taste for it as well during our
pregnancy? Or was it that, being both Irish and beholden to the culinary whims of
child-bearing, an uncontrollable urge to eat potatoes possessed you? Any style
would do -- mashed, hashed, chipped, deep-fried, boiled, oiled, baked, roasted, grilled....
Or was it both Spam AND potatoes? That combo of protein and carbs would
inflate anybody in 9 months.
Whatever it was that caused my frightening birth weight, I at least prepared you
for the three stragglers to come who were equally off the charts, you poor, battered woman!
RJ at 9 lbs, 3 oz;
JP, 9 lbs, 2 oz;
and little Mikey, who was hardly little at 9 lbs, 6 oz.
As for Julie? She gave our mother a painful foreshadowing of what was to come...
an astonishing 8 lbs, 13 oz! And that's the last we'll be able to say about our dear
sister's poundage as she informed me in no uncertain terms:
"Any further inquiries about my weight shall go unheeded. :>)"
wom
2/12/2011