Shortly before Europe was plunged into the Second World War, my young mother and her family traveled from their home in New York to France. This is a true story based on my grandmother's diaries, which document her daughter's early symptoms of men...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A few years before my mother died I began interviewing her and making notes. After her death in January 2010 I discovered a treasure trove; 200 years of our family history locked in the chickenhouse-about seventy feet from where we had visited in the old farmhouse.
Over the next eight years I studied and catalogued thousands of pages from letters, diaries, scrapbooks, photo albums, and a "Mental Health Journal" my grandmother kept.
I began writing-hundreds of pages, but not finding the door I was searching for. I discovered the Lonely Hearts catalogues my stepfather Herman had ordered after World War Two. From Cupid's Columns my mother's picture and advertisement jumped out at me and I realized the story started with Herman-he had made first contact.
My first memoir, Muddy Jungle Rivers, picks up where Pawns ends. After bouncing through a series of foster homes and a summer riding the rails and living in hobo camps, I enlisted in the Navy in 1965-over the next three years, I did two deployments to Vietnam.
Herman free with the purchase of Pawns SAVE $19.99!! Bundle all three books, Herman, Pawns, Muddy Jungle Rivers, for $41.93 (Includes shipping within USA) THIS SPECIAL PRICE ONLY AVAILABLE AT: http://www.wendellaffield.com/shop
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
This is the scene that greeted me when I first unlocked the chickenhouse on our farm homestead in northern Minnesota. The scrapbook on top of the heap is the source of the images in this series of stories. Tucked in another bag, buried in the rubble, I discovered my grandmother's diaries that accompany this story.
And so my grandmother's diary continues as she and her daughters live in Brussels.
Sat, Nov 13, 1937:
Sort of a dull day. Some marketing in A.M. Shopping in town in P.M. Met Polly at Metropole at six after she had skated all afternoon with Gerta. She's such a dear. We went to a funny little place to dinner and then to see Janette McDonald & Nelson Eddy in "Naughty Marietta." It was so lovely. After, Polly told me she had seen it four times in America and I thought her French was improving so much.
