rlfj: Blog

If you think international news doesn’t affect us in the US, think again. The person who is doing the illustrations for my recent stories lives in the Middle East. We are currently working on a new story, and today I got the following note: “A war has started here, so it will take me some time.” I immediately responded, ‘Stay safe’, and got another response: “I'm heading to family for better location with safe room/shelter etc.” Regardless of what you think about this war, it affects more than just the people in Iran, Israel, and the United States.

For those not familiar with New England and New York weather, Chapter 6 refers to nor’easters, a frequent winter storm in the area. A nor’easter is a cyclonic storm that forms off the coast of New England during the winter. While satellite photos make it look like a hurricane, it is different. It forms when warm Gulf Stream water hits cold Canadian air. While most winds in North America blow west to east, cyclonic storms swirl in a counterclockwise fashion, so the wind that hits the mainland is coming from the north-east – a nor’easter. These storms can pummel New England and reach as far inland as the Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks. Two or three nor’easters a year are not uncommon, and they can dump several feet of snow per storm.

Yogi and Boo-Boo refer to The Yogi Bear Show, a very popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from the Sixties. If you were around in the Sixties and early Seventies, you know who Yogi and Boo-Boo were. Our kids might have known; our grandkids haven’t got a clue! They were cartoon bears who inhabited Jellystone Park, where they avoided Ranger Smith and tried to grab ‘pic-a-nic baskets’ from campers; Yogi was “smarter than the av-er-age bear!" Even today, my wife and I joke that Yogi and Boo-Boo will come up on our deck and knock first.

Enjoy!

We now move into Book 2, a generation after Book 1. The Caparellis and Tomasinos are still around, but we are now meeting a new family, the Roswells.

The places I mention in Chapter 5 - Ballston Spa, West Milton, and Rock City Falls – are all very real places. In the 1960s they were small, quiet, and rural. When my wife and I moved to upstate New York, we went from a suburban apartment to a place where building lots were measured in acres. In many townships and counties (but not in villages or cities) the minimum building lot is five acres. We still have family in the suburbs, and they just can’t imagine life where the driveway is over five-hundred feet long, the annual snowfall is over eight feet, and the deer and the antelope play. (Okay, no antelope, but plenty of deer, coyote, rabbit, fox, racoon, bobcat, bear, porcupine, turkey, quail, and every other critter in upstate NY, all on my seven acres.)

Enjoy!

The fun and games in Chapter 4, specifically Mary’s excommunication, dates to the Second Vatican Council, commonly known as Vatican Two. Vatican Two ran from 1962 to 1965 and essentially involved modernizing the Catholic Church. More than a few conservative priests fought against said modernization; certainly, Father Sebastiani would have. Elements included increased religious freedom, improved relations with other religions, and that Mass could be done in languages other than Latin. Some priests to this day preach against it. (I almost walked out when a priest in 2000 called the Jews Christ-killers, a curse from the Second Century; I’m 1/8 Jewish and my entire family is of German descent.) Excommunication extends to all sacraments, including baptism, so Herschel would have been denied baptism.

On a more amusing note, my mother got married in 1952 in a beautiful white satin dress. She handed down the dress to my sister in 1990, who then handed it down to my youngest daughter in 2011. Both my sister and my daughter made some modifications (different trains, etc.) but looked spectacular and have still managed to stay married. Mom made it to 52 years before Dad died; my sister and daughter are still going strong. That’s a fantastic return on investment for a dress from 1952.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3’s title is basically what happens. Tommy & Mary continue to be romantically involved. It’s relatively simple. It’s not the longest chapter, but chapters don’t have equal lengths. You break them where they make sense. Enjoy!

To all those who purchased a copy of the new book, thank you! It is much appreciated. I hope you enjoyed it. I told my wife, and she has already spent it. Thanks.

Almost all of this story takes place in Saratoga County, NY. Compared to modern Saratoga, 1960s Saratoga is almost unrecognizable. In 1960, the population of the county was 89,096. In 2020, it was 235,509; it is the fastest growing county in the upstate area. In 1960, it was a quiet, rural county. Today it is a thriving high-tech area with lots of suburbs for workers in the Albany region. I lived in Ballston Spa in the 1980s and my son and his family live in Saratoga Springs now. It is yuppie heaven; my wife and I frequently laugh at them.

Many readers might not believe my depiction of a single mother in the early 1960s. All I can say is that it was a radically different time. In TV shows and movies, married couples had separate beds. The 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy was radically modern when Lucy was shown as pregnant; the only previous on-screen pregnancy was in the 1940s, when television ownership was very low.

The stigma I depict was quite real and quite common. Abortions were illegal, though ‘back alley’ abortions might be available, though extremely dangerous. Much more common was sending pregnant daughters off to distant relatives where they would live while hiding and then give the baby up for adoption. Raising a baby at home with your parents was an invitation to becoming a social pariah. If they were in school when they became pregnant, they were summarily kicked out as bad influences.

In the early 1960s, birth control was much more restricted. It was illegal for a doctor to write a prescription for women under the age of 21 without a parent’s consent. The Comstock Act prohibited advertising of birth control. Unmarried sex was illegal, so some states prohibited the sale of birth control (both the pill and condoms) to unmarried people. There are reports that some single women would borrow a wedding ring when they went to their doctor for birth control.

Here’s a little more history from the 1960s. Google ‘1960s car seats’ and see what they look like. Forget any padding or straps or seat belts. They consisted of a cheap metal frame that hung over the back of the front seat. Seat belts weren’t required until 1967. In the event of an accident, the baby and the seat would go flying into the windshield. Ouch! For another thing, baby strollers were nothing like what they are today. Nowadays they are folding multifunction seats with wheels. In the 1960s they were basically beds on bicycle tires.

Enjoy!