Do you know where your parents are?

My husband often turned to me and asked in a tone that was half humor and half bewilderment, “It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where your parents are?

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR PARENTS ARE? BY MICHELLE M TOKARCZYK 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 94

Before the late evening TV news a public service announcement would ask, “It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” and my husband often turned to me and asked in a tone that was half humor and half bewilderment, “It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where your parents are?”

In 1977 my 60-something parents became wanderers, driving a battered car around the United States, leaving a few phone calls and postcards as bread crumbs for my sister Nancy and me.

My Mom and Dad were working-class people who came of age in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Money was tight when they married in 1951. My father aged 32 was a grocery store clerk and my Mom aged 37 was a secretary.

Two baby girls made money even tighter. My father got a job working maintenanc…