SYNOPSIS

This sequel to Children of the Manse (the first book in the series) follows the development of the four adopted children—Lewis, Mark, Michael and Janey—through the identity crisis of adolescence to adulthood and beyond.Halfway through their adolescence, the children’s clergyman father accepts an offer to become the chief minister of the United Church in the “atomic city” of Los Alamos, New Mexico. The children welcome the more permissive environment in the Southwest and enjoy a high school in which half of the students are Hispanics. It is in New Mexico that the author’s lifelong interest in human cultures was born. While they no longer face immediate physical and psychological threats, adolescence and the formation of the children’s identities create new challenges. As their adoptive mother put it, when turning down a national award that would involve being away from home for weeks at a time, “My children are now teenagers and need me more than ever.” The origin of the author’s interest in an international career as an American diplomat is described in the chapter entitled “Guatemalan Summer.” As in the first volume of Children of the Manse, the adoptive father supplies the embarrassing moments and humorous stories. This true story is based on interviews, journals, family letters, and the author’s memories.

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EXCERPTS

 

“I will not mention that when you lost your father you were adopted by very prominent people

and were chosen to become closely associated with the most powerful figures in the city. You

soon were dearer to them by love than if you had been close through a biological relationship,

and that is the most precious bond.” —Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

 

Helen Coit and Erik Erikson

My parents found me moody, uncooperative, rebellious, and irritable. I insisted on wearing my

Levi jeans tight and low and had begun talking and acting like a movie star of the l950s,

James Dean, “The Rebel Without a Cause”. My Mother said, There is a woman I would like you to meet. Her name is Helen Coit. She is a psychologist. She lives in Santa Fe on a small ranch. The mere word psychologist created waves of anxiety that flowed through me. At first, and at great length, I resisted such a meeting.

 

I did not know as I struggled with the question of my identity that psychoanalyst Erik Erikson had faced the same issue. The development of identity and adoption were primary personal concerns for Erikson. His biological father was a mysterious Danish man who left his mother, Karla Abrahamsen, before Erik was born.

 

When an American adoptee asked why he had never searched for his father, Erikson said that perhaps it was better to keep his fantasy. It is better to be your own originator.”

 

Artist Brother Michael

Oh, yeah. I like women. I mean, clearly, in the goddess show that I did, I painted these four heads….all of them were better than that one in there (pointing to another room in his studio). I got a lot of response about their being ethereal and motherly...and they all had nursing babies and rotating boobs. But they’re done in a kind of Madonna-ish way and they look wonderful. People told me about the show, that they were wonderful, and they really liked them.

 

Janey Develops

When Janey was in the sixth grade and 11 years old, her Tomboy phase ended. Her sixth-grade teacher, the formidable Miss Dunham, asked Janey to stay after school. She gave Janey a note to take home which told Mom to buy Janey a bra….We boys were made aware of a new Janey, a Janey who had decided it was not a curse to be female after all. In her own words, she came down the dark back stairs of the manse to suddenly burst into our large kitchen where we were all assembled. She had become a proud Janey. With her new bra in place she paraded in front of her three older brothers. She remembers sticking out her chest as if to say, “I now have something you don’t. And what’s more, you never will!”

 

Father’s Sex Seminar

In his seminar in the woods, Father began to read what turned out to be a primer on sex with matter-of-fact descriptions of male and female sexual organs with accompanying photos. Father held these up high, turning them in the direction of each of us to be sure we missed nothing.

 

His timing was apparently right on target for eleven-year- old Michael, however. When Mark and I later discussed Father’s seminar on sex with Michael, Michael said, incredibly, “But I thought he was talking about the Bible!!!

 

Farewell to Beaver Hollow

Decades later, I returned to see that when Interstate 80 was built, the new highway had claimed a corner of the Coulter property, rerouted the country access road to Grandma’s place, turned a lovely bridge into a tunnel, and destroyed for all time the section of the creek where we first and most often fished. As I walked the Old House property, I saw that where we had built a dam, so we could swim, and where we sighted scarlet tanagers and flickers and heard the haunting midday call of the hermit thrush deep in the woods, that all that was gone

 

The Gifts of the Luchs

This is what the Luchs gave me and my siblings from our first years with them. A safe home. A loving home. The absence of the fears we had lived with and that too many children must live with today. They provided an environment in which the wounds of our first years could be mostly healed.

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More than that, they saw that we got wholesome meals and the best health care available. They read to us, fed our interest in words and books and ideas. They were positive role models. They affirmed life, took joy in life. They made it possible for us to learn correct, well-spoken English. They taught us good manners. They insisted on discipline and taught us the value of honesty. They took us to concerts, saw that we got music lessons, delighted in our progress, and subjected their best friends to our childish recitals. Above all. they were proud of us and had us often photographed by professionals.

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FAREWELL TO KNOX SUMMERS

…….Almost all the adults and most of the buddies so important in my youth of Knox summers are gone. The aunts that I admired and the uncles that I imitated are gone….did you ever know such a place or take into your heart such an enchanted landscape as Beaver Hallow? And such friendly villages as Knox and Monroe, and crossroads like Wentling’s Corners and Blair’s Corners and what is left of the ghost town of Jefferson? If so, you are fortunate. Did you live in the midst of grandparents and aunts and uncles who were your heroes, who gave you a sense of what it is to be a fully developed and mature human being? Will you carry their memory and silent teachings with you unto death and  hope that you have passed some of what they were and said to your children and grandchildren? If so, you are fortunate. You have been blessed.