BSK has an astounding memory, recalling with accuracy her world at age five. Little BSK lived in Windsor, Ontario while BSK’s mother worked across the border in Detroit. The year was 1946 and BSK’s war hero father, Roy Kent, had not yet returned to Canada. There were very few fathers in BSK’s Windsor neighborhood, only mothers and children. The fathers had been killed in World War Two. BSK visited farms where working mothers “boarded” their children. BSK envied those kids as they sat at long tables filled with food and had jolly meals. BSK enjoyed the days at a nearby lake. Women and BSK arrived in an auto. Windows were covered with newspapers as all changed into swimsuits. Modesty was preserved. When BSK’s father returned to Canada the family moved to Mansfield, Ohio. Children from an orphanage on the outskirts of the city were bussed to BSK’s elementary school. The orphanage was enclosed by a field with many horses and donkeys. BSK concluded that an orphan’s life had advantages since orphans could ride these animals. This made HG recall the Roman Catholic orphanage for boys in Rockaway. Six-year-old HG would watch with wonder as nuns and boys swam in the Atlantic Ocean (the orphanage was only a few hundred yards from the sea). The nuns were garbed head to toe in vast, billowing wool swim garments, the Catholic version of burkhas. But, the sisters seemed to frolic happily among the waves.
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