In preparation for starting at Brearley, Annette took me to a showroom that provided uniforms for the private schools in the New York area. The Brearley uniform consisted of a short, stiff, blue serge V-necked tunic with integral pleated skirt, a matching cloth buttoned belt, equally stiff, blue serge bloomers, short-sleeve shirts in light blue or white, and a maroon blazer with “BS” embroidered in gold on the pocket. The uniform was worn Monday through Thursday. On Fridays we could wear our own clothes.
Worse than the uniform: my fellow campers were right. I had to repeat second grade.
* * *
During that first fall Annette and I made several trips uptown to visit her parents, Granny Pat and Gaffer. I liked Granny Pat. She had wavy, white hair clinched in a chignon, a soft bosom, and smelled of Jean Marie Farina Eau de Cologne, which she liberally shared with me on our visits.
I did not like Gaffer. He was stone deaf and wore a large hearing aid behind one ear that was held to his head by a thin metal band. A wire connected the device behind his ear to an even larger device, which he kept in his breast pocket. This controlled the hearing device, which he turned on and off at will, sometimes while someone was speaking to him. Because of an earlier bout of colon cancer, he had a bulging colostomy bag under his waistcoat. The bag gurgled and rumbled on its own, which he seemed not to notice. Gaffer took particular pleasure in berating my mother, in my presence, for bringing shame on our family by her failure to keep my father in line. He badgered her to give up her silly stab at independence and move back to 1000 Park Avenue, where I could be raised under his and Granny Pat’s supervision.
* * *
28