About
six months before my older brother Eddie died from cancer, we sat on my porch
and talked about our upbringing.
We were somewhat poor when we
were growing up, especially after my late father, Edward M. Davis, was injured
while working as a lineman. He was electrocuted and burned severely over most
of his body. The tough old former WWII Navy frogman survived, but he was out of work
for a good while.
My brother and I agreed that
although we were struggling, we had a happy childhood. My late mother, Claire,
and my father (seen in the above photo), somehow managed to keep our house, and
we never went hungry.
Christmas was celebrated in
our house, but we were told we could only have one gift (other than the socks
and underwear placed in our stockings that hung on the wall).
I knew that I wanted to be a
writer when I was 12. That year I told my mother that if she would buy me a
typewriter, I would be a published writer within a year.
I don’t know how my mother did it, but I
received an Olivetti Underwood typewriter for Christmas that year. I was
surprised and grateful. (see the above and top photo of the typewriter).
Some years later, I went to
the movies with my friends. We went to see John Wayne in The Green
Berets. I pounded on my friend Buster’s arm when I saw that David Janssen,
portraying a writer covering the Green Berets in Vietnam, was carrying the
distinctive Olivetti Underwood typewriter’s light and dark blue carrying
case.
“I have the same typewriter
as the reporter,” I told my friend excitedly.
He didn’t know what I was
talking about. But due to my literary and journalistic ambitions, I was more
interested in David Janssen's character as the journalist (based on Robin
Moore, the author of The Green Berets, who trained and reported on
the Green Berets in combat in Vietnam), than John Wayne and the Green Berets
portrayed in the film.
Although I was off by many
years, I finally became a published writer. And although I use a computer these
days, I still have my Olivetti Underwood typewriter, and it still
works.
So, as I celebrate Christmas
this year with my wife, children and grandchildren, I'm thinking of my late
mother, father, sister and two brothers.
And I’m thinking of my
Olivetti Underwood typewriter.
Note: Below is a photo of the young aspiring
writer:
No comments:
Post a Comment