The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write

Trigger warning: My Dad was 13 when he was introduced to sex . . . by a woman who was nearly 30. If descriptions of what most would name molestation are triggering for you, this may be the episode you need to skip. My father has not gone back on his word to be honest. As we continue our conversations through his life, we hit upon this maturation point that is rife with complications.

In the 1940's, East St. Louis, Illinois' Black community was "art-full" according to my Dad. There were impromptu singing groups, and instruments created from refuse, discards and ordinary household items. Families listened to country, blues and gospel, and voice acted dramas on the radio. "Dial M For Murder" was performed at the high school and in the midst of all that a young boy came of age. Al...

In a mere 72 hours after his mothers death, a 9 year old Eugene became the son of his grandmother, a devout Jehovah's Witness in her mid sixties. And not only that, she was cruel, and sometimes physically abusive. In this episode my dad reflects on whether she was a protagonist or an antagonist in his story and how this "Hard hearted Hannah" shaped his childhood.

John Henry Redmond was named for a strong man. He was my Dad's hero, and a man of innumerable talents. So why did he essentially abandon his nine children upon the passing of my dad's mother, spend the rest of his days in semi-hiding, ending his life buried under an assumed name? In this episode we find out why.

My dad says he was orphaned through the death of his mother at age 9 and through the abandonment of his father at the same time. In this episode he shares his memories of Emma Jean Hutchison, a woman who bore 9 children and was pregnant when she died of an aneurism in 1947. We talk about how his mother's death, which to him felt like a disappearance, informed his work as a mentor over his 40 year...

The words "Pearl Harbor" were what my Dad heard and remembered as a four year old. That surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese represents his earliest memory. He'd just turned 4 a week prior. In this episode there is an interesting resonance between the attack spearheaded by the Japanese and an alluring Japanese bride whom my father watched through his backyard fence.

The very first episode of The Memoir My Dad Wouldn't Write is an introduction to my Dad, Eugene B. Redmond, and to me (Treasure Shields Redmond), and to the REAL reason I feel so urgent about creating this project.