Covington, Kentucky on the Ohio River across from Cincinnati, Ohio, a child of a saxophone, clarinet, harmonica-playing father who started a band at 17, and a mother who at only 16 he hired as his pianist. From a house full of jazz, blues, classical, swing, big band, country, singing Mitch Miller Christmas album songs from sheets of words. I am from Catholic grade school, exchanging holy cards for Valentine’s Day, daily mass, wearing a chapel veil. May crowning, praying rosaries & novenas—ingrained in guilt, unworthiness, beseeching forgiveness.

I am of German descent. From goetta, braunschweiger, German potato salad, grilled baloney, potato pancakes, skewered city chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches during Lent, Barq’s cream soda & vanilla ice cream floats. From Reese’s produce truck, Finke’s meat market truck, the ice cream truck’s soft serve, Eskimo pies, & drumsticks. From candy cigarettes, jawbreakers, nonpareils, wax lips, candy necklaces you wore all day around your neck before you eat it, & Nabisco wafers we pretended was Holy Communion.  

From old streetcar tracks, the woods of Lookout Heights, tree houses, vines to swing on, honeysuckle licks, blackberry & mulberry picking, collecting buckeyes, & shiny rocks. Outside games: Red Light/Green Light, Simon Says, Kick the Can, Ghost in the Graveyard, jump-roping, Cat-in-the-Cradling, ice-skating on frozen lakes, roller-skating on sidewalks, dragging wagons up hills, riding down at breakneck speed, electrified & terrified.  

I am from family walks after dinner, hanging our warsh on a clothesline in the backyard, fried chicken picnics for summer concerts at Devou Park bandshell, Coney Island rides: The Wildcat, Wild Mouse, & The Lost River. Weekend country drives, travel to state park campgrounds to tent & pop-up camp, singing in our old Ford station wagon, counting cars & states on license plates, naming shapes of clouds.  

From a mother who sewed us Halloween costumes, dresses for Christmas & Easter, who taught me to sew at 8. I’m from hand muffs & mohair sweaters. Noxzema cold cream for sunburns, Vicks chest rub for colds, stinging Mercurochrome for cuts. A paternal German grandfather who started a drycleaner business my dad & uncle continued. I am from a maternal grandma who prayed for pets & people as she walked her neighborhood, nursed cats, dogs, & neighbors back to health. Because of St. Vitus Dance (Sydenham chorea), she wasn’t supposed to live past her teens, was warned not to get pregnant because of a bleeding disorder, but birthed two daughters & lived to almost 88. Who told me Never let anyone see you cry, a belief I reject with all my heart.  

~ Inspired by George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” project