There are those born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Eddie Hammond's had, as an added advantage, an inscription by Peter Rabbit! The spoon and the Birthdate and Fortune book were given to me by daddy's mother, Betty. The book is open on my father's birth date, March 20th, 1929, and Fortune- which serves as an entirely appropriate description of my father. Why nanny wrote "Eddie Jr." is a mystery as I do not recall another Edward in the family. His eldest brother Ralph was named after their father.

My grandmother loved her two sons beyond all. I remember her telling me that she had only married his father because she wanted to have children- and (triumphantly), she had her boys! She never touched liquor of all her life and as fate would conspire, found herself married to an alcoholic. Even at 90 she still regretted the loss of her first and possibly only romantic love- a boy she had known in Lochgelly, Scotland. He had left for the States and this inspired her to follow- but she was proud- too proud, to go to him directly, and had taken a boat to Canada instead, thinking that he would send for her. Instead, she endured months of silence until word finally reached her that he had "got a woman in the family way and been compelled to marry...", this being the account of my grandmother, of course. It still irked her after all of those years- and she berated herself for her pride, that she had not rather followed him directly to America. I remember lying in the dark in her little room in the senior citizen's home in Winnipeg, listening to her reminiscences, and feeling astounded and somehow gratified that the body grows old but the passion and love need never die. (Nor a Scottish brogue either!)It's rather funny, as many people who met my grandmother remember a somewhat dour and hard woman. I felt privileged to have shared this side of her.