I was born in Detroit and have few, if any, memories of my early years. I vaugely remember someone holding me up for a view from a back porch - I kind of remember being in the backyard and hearing the garbage man coming down the back alley..(he scared all the kids so i was told), but that is about it. We moved to Birmingham, Michigan when I was quite small and I don't have a lot to remember from that era. I must have been at least 10 when we left there so some of my childhood memories must have taken place in Birmingham.
I can remember streets being paved in Birmingham and how much fun we had digging up hot tar and chewing it! We also did a lot of roller skating so we did have sidewalks..i remember skating down the street one day and thinking "this day is so perfect, I will remember it forever", but what was perfect about it has escaped me. We had a maid, Bertha, and our parents must have been gone a lot because she figures in a lot of memories. One, in particular, was my brother being called to come home from school (and bring the car with him!) He couldn't have been more than 12, but he managed to start the car, drive it to school and scare Bertha to death! I remember having friends, but I don't recall any names - we went to a Catholic school and naturally i remember the priest coming into our class and asking all of us "how many of you are going to be priests? - how many will be Sisters?" All hands would go up and we all were lying because none from that era took the plunge that i remember.
My dad was in the automobile business then. He was vice-president of Hupmobile. We subsequently moved to Scarsdale, N.Y. where he was in advertising, but my mother used to say that was a bad decision because Mr. Chrysler wanted him to join that company, instead of going into advertising, and it would have been a better decision. (Hindsight being 20/20)
