Report from the Interior (28 page)

She began telling you about frostbite, the intolerable cold of the Korean winters and the inadequate boots worn by the American soldiers …

… inviting Cleveland Browns quarterback Otto Graham … to attend your upcoming birthday party in New Jersey.

… a short message for the kid
 …

… you weren’t sure if you were shaking Whitey Ford’s hand or the hand of someone else.

What possessed you to attack that old Philco, to eviscerate it and render it useless, to annihilate it?

The Calumet can was red, you recall, with a splendid portrait of an Indian chief …

… as if every boy at some point in his childhood were destined to cut down a tree for the pure pleasure of cutting down a tree …

… but then, of course, George Washington was the father of his country, of your country …

… this white colonial mansion was the heart of America itself, the very seat of Columbia’s glory …