Growing Up

The oldest of Papa’s children, Hal, who is called “the Colonel,” arrives at the Belleville house in the middle of the night with three pieces of lumber and a small suitcase. He claims to have an important deal with New York businessmen. Baker believes he is an important man from his demeanor but notices Uncle Allan does not share everyone else’s excitement about Hal’s business prospects. Charlie is the youngest of Papa’s children who moves in after the Bakers arrive. He does not work or leave the house, though the family calls him brilliant. Lucy loves him but holds him up as an example of what not to become. She says he is stricken with laziness, as if it were an unpreventable disease.

Baker wonders why his mother believes his laziness is curable with a belt while Charlie’s is tolerated “with sorrow and love” (97). He begins to suspect the adults are hiding a secret about Charlie. He asks if Charlie ever worked, and they tell him Charlie had been a newspaperman in Brooklyn. Distressed over repeatedly being mistaken for a shady character called Moe Simon, he retreated from the world permanently. Baker knows his family members are “not above weaving a comic fiction out of a single thread of fact” but believes the story about Charlie (99). Charlie’s pastimes are sleeping, reading, smoking, and drinking coffee. He is a committed Republican, prone to emerging from a twelve-hour nap to denounce idlers the government pays for doing nothing. He explains to Baker the evils of socialism.

There is “bad blood” between Charlie and Hal (96). Hal calls Charlie a weakling, which offends Baker, who is fond of Charlie. Baker one day walks in on Hal threatening to beat Charlie up. Baker notices that Charlie does not have faith in Hal’s plans and sees his stories as nonsense. Baker also notices that Hal’s stories cast him “as the soul of manly chivalry” and begins to listen more critically (101). He is losing his “childhood’s innocent credulity” and seeing adults’ flaws (102). Baker concludes that Hal is aware Charlie knows Hal has been “a faker all his life” and cannot forgive his younger brother for that (102).

Hal devises several plans to get rid of Charlie. First, he tries to ship him across the country to another brother, Willie, who lives in San Francisco. When Willie, who helps financially support Lucy, refuses to take Charlie in, Hal decides to start a business in Baltimore that Lucy will operate, bringing Charlie with her to help with household tasks. To convince her, Hal appeals to Lucy’s desire to have a home of her own.

Baker recalls waking in the night to the comforting sound of adults talking and laughing over coffee. One popular story involves a lost fortune belonging to Papa’s English ancestors. Papa went to collect it and was told it had “reverted to the Crown” (106). Doris’s skepticism prompts Baker to quit believing the story. He begins to feel superior to adults, though he continues to absorb their way of seeing and thinking about the world.

Lucy’s cousin, Edwin L. James, is managing editor of the New York Times. Each week, Allen loyally purchases the paper. It passes from hand to hand, no one wanting to admit they find Edwin’s weekly column boring. Lucy points to Edwin as an example of what Baker can accomplish. At eleven, he is “consumed by timidity” and feels unfit for work (109). His brief attempt to sell magazines convinced him he has “no future in business” (109). A failed attempt to learn the banjo further shatters his confidence. He decides writing is the only thing he is fit for because he believes it does not require actual work. His mother helps Baker improve his writing. One composition on wheat that Lucy almost entirely rewrites is published in the Belleville newspaper as an example of exemplary student work. Baker is captivated to see “By Russell Baker” in print.

An Irish loner called Walter beats Baker up repeatedly when they are alone. One day, Baker’s friends Frankie, Nino, and Jerry show up and pull Walter off long enough for Baker to take off his roller skates. Resentful that he must fight to avoid looking foolish, Baker punches Walter cleanly in the face. Secretly, Baker believes he would not have won without his friends there. His mother does not like his friends, believing they will never “make something of themselves” (115). Baker silently accuses her of hypocrisy: She sings about brotherly love in church but fails to extend it to his friends. Eventually, Frankie wins her over by calling Baker “the smartest person in school” (116).

Baker believes the smartest girl is school is Katherine. Baker thought she was “a good girl” until she agrees to kiss Frankie after school. When Pat’s brother Jack visits from Baltimore, the family enlists him to teach Baker about sex. They go up to Baker’s room and discuss baseball. Finally, Jack asks Baker if he knows “how babies are made” (119). Baker says he does, and the conversation ends.

Hal proceeds with his plans to move Lucy to Baltimore, where Benny’s sister Selba (called “Aunt Sister”) lives. Hal convinces Lucy to lend him $75, a considerable portion of her savings. Baker suspects his mother knew the plan would never work. She does not give Hal all her savings. Baker is excited to move until the day they leave. The family gathers in Pat’s parlor listening to his mother play “Rock of Ages” on the piano. Baker realizes his mother’s youth has passed, and she is alone.