"The Autumn Balloon" by Kenny Porpora (2015)

This is a searing self-portrait; written in an understated fashion; making it all the more colorful, just as the cover implies. They keep telling me not to pick the book by its cover, but I do anyway, and usually with wonderful results. This book was no exception to that method.

Kenny Propora was raised in a very unusual fashion; by very unusual people. You can tell that by the end of the first chapter when his mother is berating him for being a faggot while she drinks her Vodka. When she runs out she asks Kenny to get her a refill. Kenny was in 2^nd grade at the time.

Born to a father who was several decades older than his Mom, the author grew up in a world inhabited by the uncivil war raged by his mother against the whole world; while his father’s war encompassed mostly his own failings. Still, he is a sympathetic character in an otherwise nightmarish world, where home is sometimes the family’s old broken down car.

Relationships between parent and child are hard enough without the twin demons of substance abuse and mental illness to cope with. As a child the author had to have transported himself to a “safe place” in his own mind in order to get through the ordeal presented by his particular circumstances. And that “safe place” often informs the soul of the person who is forced to retreat there. In this case that alternate world turned out an inquisitive and sensitive young man. But how much of that is the result of just blind luck and circumstances; as opposed to fate; would be hard to determine.

Although this is Mr. Porpora”s first book, if his writing here is any indication of the depth which he is capable of reaching, then we are all in for a treat with any of his subsequent books.

Advertisements - Windows Into the Past

Advertisements reflect the culture of the times in which we live. In this case we are looking at past representations of American life. Take this ad for contraception. Undoubtedly from the World War Two era this ad places all of the responsibility for disease upon the woman. Still, she is kind of pretty.... I wonder if this ad was very effective at the "moment of truth." They say that "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." I doubt it.

Here's an interesting ad promoting the "bulking up" of America. In the days after World War Two had ended and rationing came to a halt, we were apparently a nation hungering for the things we had forsaken during the war. Still, I never recall my family eating lard after dinner. We usually had chocolate cake from Ebinger's, a local bakery that specialized in disguising lard as cakes. Contrasted with today's trend vilifying any weight gain at all, I find that I am hungering for a big slice of that nicely disguised lard cake.

Ads can be funny when viewed from the distance of many decades. Things change rapidly in the world of health and food sciences. You can't ignore the varying effects which some products have upon different people. Take this next advertisement for tobacco.

Whenever I went to see our family Physician I received confirmation of this ad. Dr. Frieri smoked like a chimney - even while eating his dinner simultaneously. He vehemently advised my Dad to quit smoking. My Dad did and gained 50 pounds and was dead at 71. The good Doctor, by comparison, continued to smoke until the end of his life. He died in his sleep at age 87. As I said, different things affect different people in different ways. Besides, I always thought the M&M's did my Dad more harm than the cigarettes. After all, Dr. Frieri never ate M&M's. He must have been wise to the lard thing.


Now here's a brilliant ad for marital bliss. The ad is for women and advises them to pour Lysol into their vagina's as a way to please their spouses and engender good female hygiene. Now I don't know about you but I can't stand the smell of cleaning products in general, let alone during intimate moments.

And a quick look at the label tells you this product is "Hazardous to Humans and Domestic Animals." Really-read the label. Besides which, I cannot even imagine me having this conversation with my wife, Sue, who provided me with these ads. I would rather drink the Lysol first. It would be a quicker demise.



Finally, a sensible ad we can all live with. After watching an Uncle of mine almost chop his hand off trying to open a beer can with a hatchet, this innovation was a relief to every member of our family back in the late 1950's. The Uncle in question went on to lead a long and productive life, eventually extolling the virtues of the "pop top" can in his later years.

Old advertisements are like works of art. They open windows into the past and offer reflection upon where we stand today. Looking at some of these ads makes me think "We've come a long way baby!"

"How the Other Half Lives" by Jacob A. Riis (1901)

Through his remarkable series of photographs, documenting life in the tenements of old New York at the turn of the 19^th Century, Jacob A. Riis has become an icon of compassionate liberalism to many folks. That’s because they haven’t read his book. This landmark classic of sociology is often spoken of as if it were a plea for compassion and sympathy for the poor. If that is your opinion of this highly vaunted work, then you have probably not read it either.

The book is somewhat akin to D.W. Griffith’s epic motion picture “Birth of a Nation” in that it stereotypes every minority then in existence in New York City. Jews are clever and suspicious; Chinese are opium pushers and white slave traders; the Italians are happy people except when pushed too far and their passionate nature gets the better of them; while the Irish are just plain filthy and would rather drink than work. And all are criminals of one sort or another.

While quoting from the crime statistics available at the time he notes that the majority of the criminals come from the slums. Crime itself is the result of unclean living and poor habits, as well as the choice of lifestyles made by the individual. When the well to do come down to the slums for entertainment, they are sometimes unwittingly dragged into these lifestyles themselves; making them victims of the poor.

As a kid I used to go to Riis Park in the borough of Queens. Riis Park is the beach which sits next door to the Breezy Point Section, which gained widespread fame this past year in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Riis Park was the brainchild of Robert Moses, who oversaw the building of most of the bridges and tunnels, as well as countless parks throughout the 5 boroughs. He named Riis Park for the author of this book, who is often considered to be a champion of the poor, and presumably would have wanted poor people to have a sunny, open place to go for fresh air. But, I wonder if Mr. Moses ever read this book.

Perhaps I am being too harsh upon the author; after all, those were different times. And he did expose the horrid conditions of the city’s slum dwellings through his photographs. It was just somewhat of a shock to read the author’s views on the predicament of the people he was trying to help.

For better, or worse, we are all products of the environment in which we live. For all the flaws in the way he has expressed himself in this book, he did lead a crusade that helped, in some way, to draw attention to the plight of the poor. Though most of the social ills which he decries in this narrative still exist today, he does deserve credit for being among the first of the moral crusaders who attempted to do something about the conditions he saw to be unfit.

And, then there are also those remarkable photographs he took, leaving us a window into our past, which might not always be so pretty, but represent who we once were. May it be that we never go that far backwards again.

A Trilogy of Books by Studs Terkel

These three books by Studs Terkel will take you on a journey through 20th Century America. "Working" was originally written as a series of Occupational Interviews for the NRA Writers Project during the New Deal. Writers were sent out across America to interview people of all occupations in all areas of the country. The results are fascinating.

Studs Terkel is an American journalist and a treasure. At 96 he is still active and writing. His writing style in these books is to let his subjects speak. This is oral history at it's best.

The next book "The Good War" is again a series of interviews with every conceivable person involved in the war. From Rosie the Riveter to the guys who flew the planes to the politicians who waged the war, it's all here.

The final book of this trilogy is "American Dreams-Lost and Found" which came out towards the end of the Vietnam War. It chronicles the differences between "The Good War" and the War in Vietnam through interviews with the people who fought in it as well as the people at home who were against the war. A real journalistic approach to the conflict that divided America so deeply. It is also a foray into what Americans really expect from their government.

The key to these books is that Mr. Terkel has an unusual understanding of people and how to get them to open up. Through his writing we see glimpses of other peoples lives and even come to understand our own in a more clear way.

These three books will help you understand how we got where we are. They will also have you wondering where we are going.