Schizophrenia ran in his line ~ as everyone knows, but not all the Vonneguts were schizophrenic. Kurt went to Shortridge (the smart guys' highschool in Indianapolis) but for a wide variety of reasons he and one of my uncles who attend Tech were buddies ~ even after the war and after Kurt became famous ~ probably through the artsy-fartsy crowd. Both had been ground combat types in Europe ~ my uncle was a ranger and Kurt was taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge. Had two uncles by marriage in that battle, and several cousins ~ one of them died there.
Accordingly, as the dutiful son, nephew and cousin of brave warriors I always kept a mental tally on who was who in terms of their relationship to warfare ~ Kurt as a writer was way up there in my teenage mind, and later, as i came to understand the costs of combat more, i could finally understand some of what he wrote about AND where his pacifist inclinations came from. No wonder he left the Midwest or the NYC crowd, but there you have it.
BTW, I grew up in an area that was in the cusp of both Irvington and Brightwood ~ rather poles apart when it came to intellectuals, engineers, movers and shakers and hard working railroadmen, and at times, criminals and cops. A cousin was actually John Dillinger's wife for a time ~ his father lived across the alley from my grandparents.
BTW, I grew up in an area that was in the cusp of both Irvington and Brightwood ~ rather poles apart when it came to intellectuals, engineers, movers and shakers and hard working railroadmen, and at times, criminals and cops. A cousin was actually John Dillinger's wife for a time ~ his father lived across the alley from my grandparents.
You've got wonderful stories there... thanks for sharing... Maybe it's one of the things freepers have in common - we lived lives that forced us out of 'easy' ways of seeing things....