"We are born astride a grave - WaynesWorldStage.com

Champion of the World. Years later, my motherexplained to me that my father's employer,Bendix Aviation, had been on strike, which wasbad news because my father worked oncommission. During the strike, he had no income.So in order to put food on the table, my father leta champion fighter beat the crap out of him.As a child, I never knew much about mymother. My father loved to talk about himself.Like father like son. My mother never mentionedanything about her past. I knew that her mother,my grandmother, was a stern woman. She hadcome to the U.S. from Sweden, by herself, at theage of twelve, and worked as a live-in servant fora wealthy Swedish family in the Chicago area. Idon't know what age she was when the family'steenage son began to fool around with her, but Ido know that my grandmother became pregnantwith my mother as a result. They were married,but soon after, the boy died. I don't know how orof what he died. My mother and grandmotherwere then kicked out of the house. Mygrandmother got another job working as a live-inservant. My mother was raised without everfeeling that she lived in her own home.As a young child, while playing in theattic, I found a box filled with dozens of drawingsof naked people. Sex was never discussed in anyway in our house and I was not about to ask what26