Claire V. Bogdanos

When I was 9 my father graduated from Wm. L. Dickinson High Night School as valedictorian and I was there with my mother.  Later that year he was diagnosed with left frontal lobe brain tumor, he was 28.  We had survived  the Depression, the 3 of us, and life was beginning  to look up.  My mom was pregnant, my dad had surgery and the winds of war were threatening in Europe.   Our nation began to mobilize, we had a baby girl and my dad developed epilepsy.  Life changes in an instant!  Then came the war and all its ramifications.  My dad became an air raid warden, I became his “sidekick” and “Gal Friday” until he died some nine years later.  I’ve said before I  was His only “son” and proud of it, he taught me all the practicalities of life in the 40’s, including plumbing !  All these years later I remember the sound of his voice and the blue brilliance of his eyes.  Some things are just unforgettable !  His mantra was “the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth”, he’d be proud that I carried it “forward” with my own boys. Yup,no girls!  And in biblical tradition within a short period of time my mother married his youngest brother to the pleasure of all.  There were anti-aircraft batteries all along the New Jersey side of the Hudson River from Bayonne north to Fort Lee with barracks included, it was World War Two.  I remember my dad nightly in his white CD helmet, his armband, whistle and big black torch lamp as he made his rounds.  You could hear his “Lights out” for blocks !  It was a much less complicated world replete with bright posters, “Don’t talk chum, chew Topp’s Gum” or “A slip of the lip can sink a ship” but the best by far, “Uncle Sam needs you” !  We won the war but lost our innocence ! Sincerely.          Claire B.