A Shadow Blankets the Bronx

Nineteen thirty-seven was not a hopeful year, but we didn’t know it. Seven-year-olds weren’t expected to know it. Neighbors shared two-cent papers, hot water visited us occasionally, and heat rose from the basement when Mom’s hammer-blasting blows onto our radiator roused the janitor from his alcoholic stupor. In the Bronx, unemployed fathers met in Crotona […]