Elephant Boy, the story begins

Elephant Boy is a crazy character who really likes to open up after a few rounds of whiskey, about his very colorful life. I will try the best I can to share with you some of the conversations I have with EB during some of our late night drink sessions.

He speaks randomly and without much continuity so as these posts progress, I warn you that they may jump all over the place in the almost 70 year life lived by Elephant Boy. He has an interesting past to say the least and this is my best attempt to preserve my conversations with him since acquiring him a couple months ago.

Tell us a little bit about your childhood?

I was born on September 10, 1954 in NYC. My mother told me about the nervousness of the city that fine day since Hurricane Edna was bearing down on New York City.  An emergency standby for hospitals and subways was ordered since the New York Weather Bureau had predicted Edna to be one of the most severe hurricanes in the city's history. In the end, nine inches of rain fell that Friday but luckily for me, my mom made it to work and I was born. Despite the threatening weather, my mom trekked from the Bronx to the Flat Iron District as she did five day's a week for the past ten years at Bijou Toys, a jewel of a toy company. It wasn't an easy commute. Having to get to the terminal of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, taking the train into the city was a time consuming ordeal.

When mom left 16 W. 19^th Street in New York City that rainy and stormy evening she took me with her. She knows that it was wrong but it was her three year old, James birthday on Saturday, and making only .84 cents an hour she could barely keep up with the cost of food and rent. Her husband never made it home from his deployment to Korea and she was forced to manage on her own. She took off her sweater at the end of her shift and laid it on top of me. She then scooped me up and quickly put me into her handbag as we scurried out of the factory and into the damp dark rainy night. Despite getting home late because of the storm and late trains, mom worked energetically late into the evening preparing a cake and decorations for James big birthday the next day.

The next day around noon I waiting patiently in the colorfully wrapped and bow tied box as James ripped through the wrapping, as he opened the lid and saw my face, his face lit up and a smile spread from ear to ear.

To be continued….