2min chapter

Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady cover image

Ada Calhoun on Writing About Greatness and Failure

Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady

CHAPTER

How My Parents Raised Me in the Catskills

I was sick a lot as a kid. I wonder if one of the reasons I was sick all those times was because they smoked seven packs of cigarettes a day between them. Yeah, that could do it. So there were a couple of instances where how they were raising you stuck in my mind. And yeah, I was this bookish little girl. I was very moralistic. I read a ton Gaka grades and my mother was hilarious and very dramatic. She was on TV shows and sitcoms and my dad was in his office smoking. We both smoked a lot. That's right. They had a place in the Catskills as well as their apartment on St. Marks.

00:00
Speaker 1
And it was a time when there weren't a lot of kids in the neighborhood. This was after in the mid 70s, there was a big exodus and a lot of buildings were empty in the village, a lot of fires, a lot of drawers money,
Speaker 2
a lot of drugs down there, right? A lot
Speaker 1
of violence. Yeah, a lot of homeless stuff. And town comes where park was a tent city for a lot of my childhood. I wasn't, I didn't go there to play. I went to Washington Square Park, which was a little safer. And yeah, I was this bookish little girl. I was very into doing the written thing. I was very moralistic. I read a ton Gaka grades and my mother was hilarious and very dramatic. She was on TV shows and sitcoms and my dad was in his office smoking. We both smoked a lot. I was sick a lot as a kid. And it was only it really when I was working on the book. But I was like, I wonder if one of the reasons I was sick all those times was because they smoked seven packs of cigarettes a day between them. And they kept all the windows closed.
Speaker 2
Yeah, that could do it. Right. Yeah. So there were a couple of instances where how they were raising you stuck in my mind. So one was, I think I have this right, that by the time you were they had a place in the Catskills as well as their apartment on St. Marks. That's right. And they left you in the city when you were 14. Yeah,
Speaker 1
for summers.
Speaker 2
For summers. So A was the summer. Why didn't they bring you? And what did that feel like super cool and fun for you or was I think I remember an instance where there was a moment where you thought, you know, this is a little scary or lonely that I'm here. Your best friend was away. Did how did you think about it then? And how do you think about it now? I thought it was totally normal at the time.

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