Remembering Childhood

Remembering Bound Brook, New Jersey, my very own Mayberry, R.F.D. A small town bordered by brooks - a beautiful place to live and grow. Living with my Grandmother, parents, Aunts and Uncles we had a happy time together. Grandma was from Mierto, Sicily and spoke broken English. When I was one she became an American citizen and forbid speaking Italian any more and I struggled at that young age to learn English. When starting school, I wouldn't talk and had a hard time remembering what I read because of the language barrier. Having a difficult time trying to think and and revert from Sicilian to English. Suddenly in fifth grade that miraculously turned around and I developed a photographic memory to go along with my thinking in colorful pictures - finally combining in my mind I received the best of both worlds. Reading my way through the grade school library, I read all the classics, Dickens, Mark Twain, O'Henry, etc. Also reading classics from our church library, I was fascinated with Dark Night Of The Soul, That Man Is You, Thomas Merton and every book I could obtain. Absorbing every word, collecting thoughts and blending them all in my mind, a mystical call awaiting me as I grew and started writing poetry when eleven.