![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He would work for the newspaper until he retired over forty years later. As a boy, I reasoned that since he worked nights while everyone else was asleep, including fish in the ocean, it must be that lobsters were awake during those hours, and so the name.īeing a printer was the only job my father ever had, and he loved it. "lobster shift," for no reason that he was ever able to explain to me. Imagine how proud I was that I, her deaf son, could do that for her."Īs an apprentice, he explained to me, he worked the night shift. When I finally got my union card and made good union wages, I could give her enough money every month so she didn't have to do that anymore. To this day I can't get the memory of her chafed hands out of my mind. It broke my heart to see my mother on her hands and knees, shuffling up and down the hallways, washing the wooden floors with hot, soapy water she dragged along behind her in a big wooden bucket. My mother and father were the janitors of our building, so they had little ready cash. My hearing brother and sisters did not have steady work. By the time I gave my mother money out of my small pay envelope at the end of the week, for my room and board, and then some more for the household expenses, there was not much left over. ![]()
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