Maryanne Battistini

Hometown Potpourri: a Memoir - Growing Up in a "Special Place at a Special Time" Maryanne Battistini

Growing up in a small Midwesterntown in Indiana during the aftermath of the 1929 Wallstreetmarket crash, pre-World War II, and facing teenage in a fatherless home duringthe war years, the author has described her childhood in an era of the past. As a young girl, Ms. Battistini describes how family tragedies affected familylife and the contrasts of living through sadness in a child's world. Facing a world of two parent,stay-at-home-mother families, as the youngest child after the death of herbeloved father, she takes us through the frightened world of an original"latchkey kid." Social mores at the timewas one that pushed mental and emotional problems of children into a "socialdumpster".......meaning they were not recognized, nor dealt with. The old Victorian adage of "children shouldbe seen and not heard," had permeated into the early twentieth century . Sheliterally walks us through the childhood contacts that left their marks on hersocial development. The reader cannothelp but make comparisons to children of single parent homes of today, and thesocial aids that are available to them. She subtly refers to the stigma of ahusbandless family, and gender inequality. She describes family life before herfather's death, and the importance of family gatherings. Growing into teenage sociabilityduring World War II, Ms. Battistini touches upon theeffects of the war years on her family as well as the community. She demonstrates how as a youth she pursuedher education through the parochial school system finishing in the publicschools of Sarah Scott Junior High and Wiley High Schools. The impact of high school friends is defined andhas been lifelong. As a forty-four year old graduatestudent taking an aptitude test, the author found her forte could have been inmechanical engineering. As a youngcollege student, she and her peers found the career options mainly to be inteaching, nursing, secretarial work, and/or marriage. Ms. Battistinispent forty-seven years in the field of