#8 of 52 : TAMMY
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Imagine:
I was born in 1929 in the NE corner of the state of Oklahoma. My dad was a McDonnell and he traveled to St. Louis and back all the time for the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. He was very devout and didn’t want his wife and daughter growing up in such a big city so he kept us on the farm. It wasn’t like a real farm, more like a country house, with a little pond and some trees. My mother wasn’t about to keep a farm, but she could keep a house and instructed me in all kind of Victorian parlor nonsense until the winter of 1942 when she died of pneumonia.
The depression and the war didn’t really touch me. For me, WWII was fantastic. I traveled with my father all over the country. The soldiers and pilots I met were all handsome, everyone petted me, and in my foolishness, I thought war was just grand. I even got to go to Washington DC when my dad met with the president. I didn’t get to meet him myself, but I was there all the same. I was 16 on V-E Day and in St. Louis kissing and dancing with everyone else.
My dad was awfully busy during the war years, perhaps a little too busy to watch out for me. By 1947, he had left the country house and all pretenses of pious living back in Oklahoma. He noticed I was grown, and decided to get me a chaperone/tutor/governess to get me ready for college. I was 18 and full of my own charm. I’ve had some kind of companion ever since. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 8





