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Do you know where your parents are?

34thparallel.substack.com

Do you know where your parents are?

34MAG
Jan 25, 2022
Share this post

Do you know where your parents are?

34thparallel.substack.com

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…

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