MY HALLOWEEN PARENTS
by Lauri Fraser
I don’t know about you… but when I was growing up, the scariest thing about Halloween was my Parents. When most of the neighborhood kids decided they wanted to be a ghost or a witch, their parents went to the store and bought them a costume in a bag, a week or two before Halloween and that was the end of it. Oh how I longed for a simple store bought costume. One you could sit down in, and move around in. One that didn’t include full make up, and being wired to a battery or having to be near an electrical socket that I had to be plug into before I could light up.
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ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER
by Julio Martinez
When I was three years old, my older brothers Gorge, age 9, and Enrique, age 8, were given the responsibility of taking me by train from our apartment in Puerto Rican Harlem to Astoria Long Island. We were going to stay with my Aunt Tatin for 6 weeks while our parents went on tour as the ballroom dance team with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra. When they got off the subway at Grand Central Station to catch to train to Queens, my brothers noticed that I wasn’t with them any longer. For the next 7 hours I was traveling back and forth on the A Train right up to Harlem and back downtown again.
This led my Aunt Tatin to decide she did not want to be responsible for a three year old with wondering feet for six weeks. This led my parents to delay going with Cugie for a week while they placed me with a temporary foster family in New Jersey. In order to make up for the lost revenue and the expense of foster care, my dad agreed to go with Cugie after the tour to Hollywood, to look over the contracts for an MGM movie Cugat was scheduled to appear in. My dad was also Cugat’s personal accountant.
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NAKED CHILDREN
by Brooke Seguin
Naked Children. To be more precise, naked boys – mostly under the age of 8. To some, this may sound unsettling, uncomfortable, and very naughty. To me, “naked boys” merely conjures images and memories from a very special time in my life: The summer of 2002. That summer, I worked as a counselor and a summer day camp – a baptist summer day camp. And surprisingly... I do believe it’s the Baptists who are most likely to nakedly run amuck. And I must add to the observation that – it’s all boys.
My introduction the naked six-year-old form started rather mildly. It began like most mornings: greeting kindergarteners as they entered the classroom while I readied construction paper, crayons, and glue. And in walks Dylan. “what’s up, Dylan? How ar.... where are your pants?” To which he replied .... (shoulder shrug)... “my mom’s on vacation?” ... “From enforcing pants?” Apparently, his father had done the dressing duties this morning and forgot to check his kid for pants. And, I had to explain to Dylan why he had to sit in the office until his dad brought pants. Not easy to explain the delicate social implications of no-pants in public to a 6 year old. Those Superman underpants were super cute though.
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