大象传媒

I was born during the war in October of 1943 in Johns Hopkins Hospital at 5:35 Eastern War Time. My mother was a mature mum of 35 at the time: this was her second marriage, having been divorced in the 20s (I think) from her first husband. She got the "baby blues" because it was war time and she couldn't breast feed me as rubber was in short supply, so she thought I'd starve because there weren't any nipples for baby bottles. There must have been some because I thrived. She used to censor letters during the war and any mention of the weather was to be deleted. One day she saw funny patterns on a photo of a woman in a skirt. She took it to the supervisor and there was a code written into the pattern of the skirt! My father was in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, but as he was an architect he was assigned to an office with 2 other artists: Mr Schrekenghast and Mr Kissilitski and his name was Vogelgesang! The secretary had a mouthful to say over the phone when anyone rang up! (I have probably spelled their names wrong - I only saw Mr Schrekenghast's name once recently in the Art Deco exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and learned he was called Oscar) My father worked on models of landscapes converting them from 2D to 3D. He was furious when my mother guessed what he did, it was supposed to be top secret. My father was a difficult man who didn't get along with others and he was shipped to China later. He came back with his future shroud or winding sheet and some opium poppy seeds! He gave those to my great Aunt Thome to grow, which she did on the side of Dalton Mountain in New Hampshire. The FBI came up the mountain and told her to dig them up. She was horrified! My mother nearly got arrested for handing out leaflets in Union Station in Washington, but she was let off because it was my first birthday!

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