Growing Up

In 1932, “the bleakest year of the Depression,” eight-year-old Baker, his widowed mother, and his sister, Doris, are living in Belleville, New Jersey, a commuter town, with his mother’s brother, Allen and Allen’s wife, Pat (21). That year, Baker’s journalism career begins, at his mother’s prompting. She is determined that Baker make something of himself, whether he wants to or not. She is bothered by his lack of “gumption” (18). His younger sister Doris has gumption, but being a girl, her best hope is to become a nurse or schoolteacher. When an adult asks Baker if he wants to be president when he grows up, he says no. He wants to be a garbage man. He knows his mother is disappointed by this answer when she calls him “Russell.” She calls him “Buddy” when she approves of him.

His mother sets up a meeting with an executive of the Curtis Publishing Company, publisher of the Saturday Evening Post. The man says he hears Baker wants “an opportunity to conquer the world of business” and asks him if he has spirit and drive. His mother answers yes, with Baker echoing her responses (19). The man says he admires Baker’s spunk. Too many men believe life is all play, the executive says. They will not go far in life. He reverently presents Baker with a canvas bag and instructions to sell 30 copies of the Saturday Evening Post each week.

On his first day, Baker stands on a street corner and waits for patrons to buy his magazines. When he returns home with no sales, Allen buys a copy and asks to be a regular customer. His mother tells Baker he has to ring doorbells, be charmingly self-confident, and convince people that no matter how poor they are, they cannot afford to be without the magazine. His mother’s lesson in salesmanship makes Baker want to quit. His mother asks to borrow his belt to whack some sense into him. Baker does not quit.

He says he and his mother have fought this battle as long as he remembers. She wants a better life for him than his blue-collar father had, complete with suits, a big house, and a nice car. Baker dreads Tuesdays, when the paper is delivered, and never manages to sell his 30 copies or overcome his sense of discomfort. One evening when he comes home without a sale, his mother sends Doris out with him. She quickly sells the whole batch of magazines.

His mother has many maxims Russell internalizes. One he despises is, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” (24). He continues selling the magazine for three years, at which point his mother admits he is not competitive enough to succeed in business. At eleven, he earns an “A” on a composition, and his mother suggests he become a writer. Loving stories and believing writers have an easy life, he agrees.

Baker describes his mother as an early feminist who in 1913 argues for women’s suffrage in a high school debate. At the same time, she harbors “Victorian” notions that women should be “protected and treasured as precious assets of civilization” (26). She believes that men are lazy and brutish and need women to guide them.

Her male standard of excellence is her father, “Papa.” She tells idyllic stories of her Virginia childhood. Baker cannot stand to hear about his grandfather because he fears never living up to him. Years later, he discovers Papa tried but failed to make something of himself. A country lawyer, he speculated in timber but was too religious to get insurance, considering it gambling. In 1917, he died of a heart attack at 53, leaving his family destitute.

Lucy had been in college but dropped out to work as a rural schoolteacher. While serving a teaching post, she meets Baker’s father, Benjamin “Benny” Baker. The school is located near a bootleg whiskey still operated by Sam Reever. Lucy hates whiskey, believing it brings out the worst in men. Benny’s car breaks down next to the schoolhouse, and he drinks while working on the car. Lucy is angry that he drinks in front of the children and is saddened that he does not have a woman in his life to help him make something of himself.

A few days later, Lucy is reacquainted with Benny when he visits a friend who lives at the house where Lucy boards. Though Benny is unrefined, Lucy likes that he is not intimidated by her education. They begin courting, and Lucy becomes pregnant. Baker notes that pregnancy out of wedlock is scandalous but fairly common at this time. If the couple marries, both can recover from the scandal. If they do not marry, only the man can recover and remarry. Women are consigned to a life of “shame and ostracism” (30). Benny’s domineering mother, Ida Rebecca, does not want Benny to marry Lucy. Benny goes against his mother’s wishes in “possibly the bravest act of his life” (35). Both 27, Lucy and Benny quietly marry in March 1925. Baker is born six months later.

The family struggles financially, moving from house to house until they eventually settle across the street from Ida Rebecca. Though his grandmother and mother are uneasy with each other, Baker loves and feels loved by his grandmother. She teaches him tasks around the house and yard and believes Lucy is too strict. One day, Ida Rebecca tries to sneak Baker a slice of jam bread, and Lucy catches them, leaving him feeling torn between the two women. He shares his first Christmas memory: seeing a decorated tree in Ida Rebecca’s living room and receiving a toy steam shovel. He suspects his mother would have given him a book.