Similar Demons Lie Vanquished: The Authorized Biography of Dr John D. Handron
122
Similar Demons Lie Vanquished: The Authorized Biography of Dr John D. Handron
122eBook
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781482808209 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Partridge Publishing Africa |
| Publication date: | 07/14/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 122 |
| Sales rank: | 871,885 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
Read an Excerpt
Similar Demons Lie Vanquished
The Authorized Biography of Dr John D. Handron (An African-American)
By Thabo Seseane
Partridge Africa
Copyright © 2015 Thabo SeseaneAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4828-0821-6
CHAPTER 1
Ilium fuit, Troja est.
(Ilium was, Troy is.)
Early Childhood
During late fall of 1937 at the local hospital in the town of Troy, Rensselaer County, New York State, a ten pound baby boy was born to Clement and Anastasia (who was called Anne) Handron. She was the daughter of the Dowers, a well-to-do family of merchants in the town, and it was 12:05 on the drizzly, blustery night of October 25. The baby was healthy in all respects and was the third son out of an eventual brood of six boys. They named him John Dower Handron after his maternal grandfather John B. Dower, who also became his godfather.
At that time Troy, New York State was 7 miles long and 2 miles wide, with 80 000 inhabitants. Its downtown area was built along the banks of the Hudson River, mainly its east bank but then the buildings crept upward from there, claiming some of the hills overlooking the river, with the highest hill being occupied by the Catholic Central High School (now part of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI). Troy's economy then revolved around small industries. There were shirt- and detachable collar-making factories (its slang name of old is Collar City), a brick factory, button-makers and so on, but most of the town's people worked at Fitzgerald's Brewery, the largest enterprise in town. Ninety-percent of the people of Troy were Roman Catholics, and there were thirteen Catholic parishes, each with its own grade school.
Clement Joseph Handron - "Dad"
Both John's parents were born in 1901 in an historic town 35 miles north of Troy called Ballston Spa. It was essentially a village that people would visit at the turn of the century because of its healing mineral springs. And, for that reason, it was a favoured destination for the rich and famous. Presently Ballston Spa has just over 6000 residents and is mainly used as a retreat by authors and as the location for several famous films. Clement was born and grew up at 48 Chapman Street and Anne a block away at 30 Eastern Avenue. They both came from Irish Catholic homes, were in the same grade in school from elementary through to high school but then, the similarity ended. Anne grew up in a comfortable home as her father was successful road contractor, whereas Clement's father served drinks to saloon patrons.
Serving as barman meant that his father could not influence the fortunes of a fairly penurious household. This was part of the reason his mother (John's grandmother) became cold and withdrawn for the rest of her life except when John, on whom she doted, was around visiting. Yet their active Catholicism prevailed at home and the young Clement became an altar boy, remaining one for most of his boyhood years. He would serve with the priest at both 6 and 9 am Sunday masses come rain, snow or shine. Their parish priest was named Father Charles McCaffrey and his was the steady hand that gave direction and purpose to the boy. This special bond would continue into the priest's retirement, till he died aged ninety. In a way the priest replaced or, at least complemented Clement's nurturing and upbringing, especially its paternal aspects.
After Clement graduated from college, during which period Father McCaffrey would supplement his inadequate scholarship from his stipend, he enrolled at Albany Medical School in upstate New York and commuted daily from Ballston Spa village, a distance of 35 miles in one direction. For no other reason than the long commute - arriving tired at both ends - his first year results were 'merely average'. On discovering this, Father McCaffrey urged the teenager to find lodgings in Albany, which he also paid for from his stipend. As soon as this happened, his academic performance improved to such an extent that he became one of the top students and graduated with flying colours. He was awarded a scholarship to specialise in Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland.
After starting practice as a 'Heart Doctor', Clement made it his policy to treat every priest, nun and clergy in Albany free of charge. Soon after being introduced to Father McCaffrey's two sisters who lived together in an elegant house in Albany, they too became non-paying patients. As these things happen, when they eventually passed away, Clement was completely overwhelmed when informed that the house, with its glossy Chinese furniture, and its rare antique Kazakh Caucasian tapestries, had been bequeathed to him.
Anne Handron
Anastasia Dower was also born in 1901 in Ballston Spa, New York State, literally two blocks away from the one who would become her husband, Clement Handron. Her father, John Dower, in that time of explosive industrial growth, became a successful road constructor, which enabled him to care for his family in circumstances of comfort, if not luxury. Her mother, a skilled seamstress, which skill she had learned working as a teenager for a Jewish family on 5th Avenue, New York City, added to the family's good fortune. This special knowledge she put to profitable use producing 'New York Style' clothing for her family and the people of Ballston Spa, especially during the summer vacations when rich people vacationed in the cool mountainous area around nearby Saratoga.
Ann grew up in this comfortable home of entrepreneurs, who were also devoted Catholics, which latter feature she brought in an especially tempered state into her marriage to Clement and their matrimonial home. On this issue and others, John frequently clashed with his mother, which resulted in him being 'in trouble' with her more often than not as his awareness matured.
Her most prominent feature was that she was preoccupied with Catholicism to an almost puritanical turn. One of the things she did was to threaten the boys with taking them to Confession for minor transgressions, whilst another was to make them recite the rosary at the table after every Sunday dinner. This fanatical Catholicism was repeatedly brought to bear on him on a consistent basis as the years went by.
Later, he got to understand that his mother's relationship with all her sons, and in particular with him, was that the way she brought them up flowed out of her own understanding of love. "We were all treated like her objects," at which point he paused, "It was with the best of intentions that she kind of like ... tyrannized us in terms of insisting on her will." But above all else, she was a Catholic zealot. One positive spin-off to this upbringing was that it drew the boys close, and when they would sometimes lovingly ridicule her fanaticism, soon gave rise to strong fraternal bonds that persist to the present.
One day John and his mother were invited to Ella's wedding. Ella had practically raised John till the age of six. Actually, it was Ella who had expressed a special wish to see John on that most special day. When they got outside the church, his mother sent someone in to inform Ella that they had arrived. To his question as to why the two of them did not go into the church and join the wedding guests she replied:
"We can't. They're Protestants."
Another incident involved a neighbour's mother. One of his neighbours was a girl his age called Barbara. Her family was not Catholic, but the two children, because they were about the same age, would often visit each other. One summer's afternoon as they played in her backyard, Barbara's mother called them into the kitchen for some chocolate pudding. After making them first wash their hands, she placed plates with a wedge of pudding in front of each of them. John quickly finished his whilst Barbara merely nibbled at hers.
"Here, you can have mine," she said, pushing her partly-eaten portion towards him, "I'm full."
"No. I can't eat off the same dish as a Protestant," he refused, pushing the plate back to her. Her mother, busy preparing food nearby heard this and to his surprise, made her disapproval at that statement abundantly clear. When he got home his mother was waiting for him: Barbara's mother had apparently phoned her about what he had said.
"Barbara's mother just called," she said as he entered. "She's angry you said you can't eat from the same dish as a Protestant." Her face conveyed a non-verbal, enigmatic element he could not quite place.
He waited for the explosion.
"I think you should apologise," she continued in the same tone, "but I want you to know you didn't say anything wrong." Which relieved him, yet left him with a sense of disquiet he could not explain.
As he grew older, she enrolled him for private piano lessons, which he hated but, as was often the case, something at which his eldest brother Clem excelled. Once a week she would give him $2 to pay the piano teacher plus a nickel for bus-fare to and from the latter's house in downtown Troy. For weeks, which turned into months, he would instead go to his favourite nickel-and-dime store and spend the money on candy. These escapades only ended when one day the piano teacher phoned his mother to find out why he had not been coming for lessons. Needless to say, this marked another low point in their already abysmal relationship.
* * *
Catholicism, definitive as it was of Troy citizens, logically reflected the homes from which these citizens came. Many homes were run along traditional Catholic lines: conservative, impassive, unquestioning. As a toddler, John grew up in such a household. Its doctrinaire Catholic atmosphere was largely the responsibility of his mother as mentioned, who was almost fanatical. So there were the statuettes and pictures, religious feasts, Saturday confession and daily prayers ... and then there were the Hail Marys. He eventually came not to consider the Hail Mary as prayer: it was robbed of that mystical character through enforced repetition sometimes ten, twenty or thirty times as the occasion demanded. Its recitation was multifactorial: it was used as punishment, occasional prayer and even as a threat against naughtiness, an adjective he frequently heard in association with his name. Sometimes all the boys would conspire to make whoever was then reciting the prayer, to giggle. Sometimes when this happened, his mother would also break into laughter, but not often. As he grew up, he realised two things: firstly, that he was the middle-born one (after Clem and Ed) and therefore, barely visible especially after three more boys were added to the family; and second, he had the most frequent clashes with his mother compared to the other boys. She, however, clearly favoured the eldest and youngest boys – sometimes going to the extent of verbalizing her preferences.
"I adore my first and last born boys," Anne would respond to this accusation from him as he grew older, "that's how it also was at my home."
Not surprisingly then, the young John did not develop deep emotional bonds with his mother; something which gained permanence, continuing well into his teens and beyond. For instance, as he grew up he would opt to spend time at his father's childhood home when they visited their grandparents, rather than at his mother's home nearby. He also preferred his father's company although it must be said that the latter was equally affectionate with all his boys.
Among John's most cherished and earliest childhood memories was of one afternoon he spent with his father, who was on his day off . It happened at Lansingburgh Boat Basin at 121st Street on the Hudson River. He was four years old, and the sun played hide and seek with the clouds.
His father was, as usual, working on his large and elegant boat the 'ClemEdJohn', named after his then-three sons. It had an in-board motor and was really the joy of his father's life, so much so that he spent some time scraping, polishing and painting it whenever he had a free moment from work. That day, John soon lost interest in what his father was doing and gradually wandered off along the boardwalk. He leaned over the edge and stared at the water as it fl owed away underneath. Despite its swirling movement he could see features of his facial image ... even as it would break up when the water hit the supporting beams of the boardwalk. Fascinated he leaned nearer ... and with a screech, splashed in head-first.
His father paused just enough to cast aside the cigar he had been puffing on, then jumped in and rescued him, scared. ... spluttering, out of the cold water. Later, as they stood shivering in their wet clothes, he was infused with such a mixture of gratitude and a sense of deep security, that he later associated either of these feelings with his father. This was the first of numerous activities which led to the development of deep and enduring bonds between father and son.
His father had a flourishing cardiology practice, and John loved nothing more than sitting on the bench-seat next to him as he drove around doing house calls in his shiny Buick. The highlight of any day was, for him, spending time with his quietly strong dad. With him he never doubted that he was loved – and not surprisingly, he was always happier away from home and mother. The primary mothering he received was from Ella, a young lady who came in to help his mother for a time after she had hurt her back, soon after John was born. She first arrived aged sixteen from the local orphanage, and only left when John was 6 years of age.
He would later say: "Ella saved me from my mother's negativity." His mother's comment afterwards was: "When Ella left you hated the world."
A year later he started school, not at nearby St Patrick's Parish, but at St Augustine's, which was at the outskirts of Troy. When he asked why, his mother said unconvincingly: "There's an outbreak of ringworm at St Patrick's School; we don't want you to get infected." From a conversation between his parents that he overheard however, he became suspicious that the move was more of a "social upgrade" than for the reason given by his mother. Another thing he later noticed was that St Augustine's was in an area where the people, whilst still working-class, were better-off .
He started kindergarten there in the year 1942, and was forced to leave four years later. As experienced by most children, kindergarten was for him as well a gentle change from the home-routine whilst at the same time retaining much of the latter's atmosphere and activities, an atraumatic easing into the rigours of education. He made new friends, played, learnt some things, ate, slept, and went home. Their teacher was a sweet-tempered, plump and much younger nun than the others. It was one of the few years in which he truly enjoyed actual schooling.
His dislike for school, largely uninterrupted from then on, centered mostly on learning and its so-called 'disciplinary aspects'. It began within the first few days of starting 1st grade, late into the summer of the following year. He 'accidentally' pulled the light-switch string as he was going towards his desk, switching on the classroom's lights.
"Who turned the light on?" It was a grating voice with intertwined chords of accusation, question and threat by the grim-faced nun sitting in front of the chalk-board.
"I did," he said innocently raising his hand.
"John Handron!" she screamed, barrelling towards him. She slapped him hard on the left side of his face.
It was so hard, he still clearly remembers the shock of it: the sting, the dizziness, and the ringing in the ear. But above all, he still remembers feeling that he could burst from indignation ... It was something that nobody had ever done to him before – despite the rocky relations between him and his mother, she never raised her hand at him. This assault set the downhill tone of his relationship with the nun from then onwards. It also formed the basis of his instinctive hostility to authority and, by extension, education in general.
In short, he soon became a 'problem-child'.
Many were the phone-calls his parents received thereafter about his 'unacceptable behaviour', and innumerable the times he was punished in various ways. He developed enuresis, which put more strain on his relationship with his mother who was mainly a housewife. Also many were the talks he had with his father, the latter cajoling, at times almost pleading for improved behaviour. He soon gained a new look John came to recognize, one made up of a combination of deep love and worry about the obviously troubled boy. The situation continued to deteriorate to such an extent that his parents decided to remove him from St Augustine's.
In the year 1946, he started Grade 4 at St Patrick's, and was placed in Mrs O'Connor's class, which was not bad and less distressful than the previous year. Also, St Patrick's was nearer home and best of all, his elder brother, Ed was in the same school. Nineteen-forty six was a short year. It was a short year for the simple reason that it was nostalgic of his first grade, and also that because the following year was a reversion to the 'St Augustine's experience'.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Similar Demons Lie Vanquished by Thabo Seseane. Copyright © 2015 Thabo Seseane. Excerpted by permission of Partridge Africa.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements, vii,Prologue, ix,
PART 1: Inchoate, 1,
Chapter,
1. Ilium fuit, Troja est, 3,
2. High School, 15,
3. Cardinal Farley Military Academy for Boys, 22,
4. The Last Farley Years, 26,
5. Iona College, 31,
PART 2: Brother Handron,
Chapter,
6. South Africa, 37,
7. Arrival at St Boniface High School, 44,
PART 3: Back in the USA,
Chapter,
8. Four Boys Without Equipment, 47,
9. Father Joe Motsumi, O.M.I, 81,
10. 1963-1969: The Defining Years, 87,
11. Dr John Handron, 90,
PART 4: Reconnecting,
Chapter,
12. Sue, 95,
13. Botswana, 98,
14. Taking Toll, 101,
15. The Visit, 107,
16. Glossary, 109,