Father and Son. A True Crime Memoir

Chapters 11, 12 & 13

Chapter Eleven

Cocktail Parties

Things changed and little minds sensed it; mine was no different. After Jacob never came, Mom and Dad started to have parties on Saturday nights. Grown-ups filled the front hall, living and dining rooms. The publisher of the Chatham Courier, Albert Callan, famed sculptor George Rickey, people from New York City, and those who had weekend houses. Music played from the large stereo console. Sometimes it was jazz, others it was show tunes. We'd come downstairs and our parents would parade us around like pets, and then we'd be sent to bed to noises of ice clinking against cocktail glasses, people singing and laughing. Some voices would boom up the staircase. People would dance and the house would vibrate. Somehow the noise became a lullaby and we'd all fall asleep.