Creative Nonfiction Contest Finalist
Divorce in the View-Master
A travelogue of snapshots
In 1973 my family moved from Brooklyn to Hastings-on-Hudson, and a year later my parents separated for the first time. My best friends Hollie and Tina had divorced parents, so I assumed this was just what parents did.
If I had a View-Master, these would be the four frozen images of my parents’ divorce. And if View-Masters had captions, these are the captions that would accompany each image, as it is imprinted on my psyche.
1. Dad walking down Villard Avenue in Hastings with our dog Maxie, to give her away to the Bide-a-Wie. /Dad walking up Villard Avenue at the end of the day with Maxie, who he did not have the heart to give away.
We found Maxie in Brooklyn. The Puerto Rican kids in the neighborhood knew her as Poochie. After taking her in, we called her Maximillian, until the vet set us straight telling us Maximillian was a girl, at which point we changed her name to Maxie. Of course, the vet referred to her as a bitch, which made my sisters and me laugh hysterically. To prove she was a bitch, that winter Maxie had a litter of tiny, fuzzy, adorable…
