Fitting into my genes

Along with Howdy Doody, roller skates and the neighbor's talking crow, the background of my childhood included the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, fallout shelters, and air-raid drills. Yes, we really did prepare for a nuclear war while at school by kneeling in front of our lockers and holding our hands over our necks.

My mom decided the fruit cellar, a room off of the basement, was our safe room for disasters. Mom was too much of a pessimist to think even a well-built shelter would help us survive those Russian bombs so I don't think her preparations ever got farther than some bottles of water and jars of her chili sauce (Mom's chili sauce was never canned, just ladled into jars, so they represented danger of another kind).

My mother was a complex woman. She escaped a hardscrabble, abusive homelife by packing a suitcase, tying it closed with rope, and riding the train 20 miles south to the bright lights of Oneida, NY.

She and Dad were opposites. Dad was gregarious, easy going but with a quick temper. She was introverted, a worrier, and internalized her emotions. The one thing they did share was being short, a trait all of us kids inherited.

There are four of us siblings and I often wonder what we picked up from genes and what from environment. I've got my mom's eyes, straight hair, and thighs. I too am introverted and quiet and subject to mood swings.  But while she told of hiding in her bedroom when chicken killing time came, I've dispatched birds on my own and have no qualms about doing more. She liked beauty parlors and perfect nails, I don't feel right if there isn't dirt under mine. I'm her match in stretching the family budget but have never equaled her housekeeping.

My sisters and brother are also a mix of nature and nuture and as I get ready to move four states away from them all, I'm glad to have had them all in my life. My brother is the image of Dad and shares his vocabulary but is more openly loving with his family, my older sister has my Mom's classy style but is a real people person, baby sis seems to have gotten the best physical characteristics of both but surpasses us all in brains. I miss my parents but Mom and Dad live in us all and I hope their heritage lives on in our children.