Back to Lackawana

I closed the Home Again post in Lackawana. A few years ago a musical was touring called Lackawana Blues. I went and found a parallel universe represented to the Irish Catholic Lackawana of m youth. A rich and vibrant African American culture was celebrated. I understand the concept of racial blindness as that is how I was raised. I never heard a disparaging  word about Black people. I never heard any words at all until  I was in high school in Buffalo. How sad and how typical, I guess, of the north just before the civil rights movement. 

This is the home my dad grew up in. Then it was the Karnes Funeral home and mortuary. There was a large American elm on the right and gardens and fields at the back. IDad chris and I lived there when I was 10 and Chris was 3. When we "got a job in" gram, who used to do the embalming herself, brought  the mortician in to embalm. I wasn't permitted to see it. The shelves were lined with jewel colored liquids and so during one job I peeked in - sadly he saw me and shooed me out before I could see the process. I told my dad and he explained it. I will spare you the details just now. The body was laid out in our parlor and we had to use the back stairs and eat cold dinners- no cooking smells to bother the guests at the wake. This experience served me well as a CCU nursing assistant. I was the only one who didn't mind taking the bodies to the morgue.


Ok on to Buffalo in the next post! Wings, Waterfalls and Cousins