Essay Four: Age Seven, 1953

Television was a big thing in our house, though it was black and white. We were crazy about the Amos and Andy show, Superman, and other sit coms. I Love Lucy and Dragnet were hot shows at the time. Dragnet scared the heck out of me, especially its theme music, which sounded pretty ominous to a seven year old. The opening line about there being stories in the big city and some of them criminal ones shook my seven year old soul. After all, all of us kids had already been told about the bogey man, and all of us had seen frightening movies already. But at home, lying side by side on the floor in front of the big television console with the small black and white screen, with Hershey's kisses, popcorn and comic books strewn about was a bit of heaven. After playing outside after school until dusk, we would put our pj's on and settle down to watch the tube. Songs I learned in school were “Mockingbird Hill:”, “Ashim was a Tootin' Turk”, “Goodbye Ol' Paint”, and the “Yellow Rose of Texas”, along with “Frere Jacques”, a popular French song. I was in first grade, having entered school late due to my October birthday. Rags to Riches and I Believe were two romantic songs being played on the radio and record players. Elizabeth II was coronated, Stalin's rule ended, and the first nuclear test was done in Nevada. This was a decade of big events and innovations. I was a little girl who loved saddle oxfords and plaid dresses. I had big eyes and was still full of innocence and dreams. My greatest pleasures were lying in clovered fields, looking up at the clouds, and running at breakneck speed up and down our neighborhood street. Jonas Salk announced the development of the polio vaccine that year; little did I know that many decades later I would be taking a painting workshop with his wife, Francoise Gilot, who had left Pablo Picasso after having his children.