I showed off my new white sneakers to our neighbor Mrs. Kier and she reached stretched her foot right over to baptize them with a smudge! She can always be counted on to do the unexpected.
From almost any era of my childhood on Home Avenue I can summon up images of playing, talking, eating or riding in the car with Mrs. Kier. In one era, I regularly popped in to her kitchen while she fixed dinner. I read letters to Maxine from the newspaper. Then, before we read Maxine’s advice to people’s family and romantic dilemmas, whoever was in the kitchen gave his opinion. I was always surprised at how many different views there could be. In another (earlier) era, Gillie and I snuck into the kitchen and attempted to remove objects without her notice while she cooked or typed up the plays she was writing on her portable typewriter. Once we made off with the entire garbage can.
She read constantly and is probably responsible for my own catholic tastes in literature. She had a particular love for social commentary and memoirs, two types of books I love to this day. After I moved away from Chicago, when I came back one of her first questions was always “what are you reading?” My own parents read a great deal as well, but didn’t introduce me to the same scope of accessible books that Mrs. Kier did. My mother didn’t have time to read during the day, but in bed she read newspapers, political and religious magazines, and history. My father liked to read Russian literature (in Russian) and had no particular interest in anything modern. The only book he ever consented to read aloud to us was Alice in Wonderland. Not a bad choice if there is to be only one, but it was still nice that Mrs. Kier went regularly to the library and encouraged us to check out piles and piles of books. She and her husband are currently at work on the third volume of a wonderful saga set in Central Asia, past and present. I’ve got a couple chapters sitting over there on a table waiting to be read.
The Kiers did something else my parents never did: go to the movies. All the movies I remember from childhood were on outings with the Kiers. Once there was no room for four at a screening of Escape from Witch Mountain. Mrs. Kier asked for her money back. The young man at the cash register said he couldn’t do that and Mrs. Kier raised her extremely carrying voice to insist. Like magic a manager appeared and said “give this lady her money back.” Movies were so few in my childhood that I can still see in my mind all the scenes of each one.
She became a social worker after getting a degree in corrections. We all sat on the edge of our seats for her tales of fascinating clients who came to see her at the Greyhound bus station. I wanted to know what she had told the man who exposed himself to her. “I told him ‘put that away’,” she said. He did as she ordered.
In my early teens I once made a plan to hitchhike to New York City for a week. Thanks to guidebooks I had checked out from the library, I had everything completely planned out (except exactly where I might be sleeping at night). I made the mistake of telling Gillie, who broke her promise and told her mother. The day before I was to leave, Mrs. Kier rang the doorbell and said she wanted to talk to me on the front porch. She informed me that she had no desire to be visiting Ohio to put flowers on my grave, that this trip was a very bad idea. I don’t think she had to work too hard to convince me not to go. Then she said, “We’re going to the Dunes on Saturday, do you want to go with us?” So I went to Indiana with them instead.
Oh My Gosh, you mke me love her jut from your word. My Grandma ws a lot like that, she read to me, took me to the library, and painted me a small star case to wear on my wrist when I fell in log with Escape to Witch Mountain. She even bought me a record with the narration and story from that movie on an LP.
Mrs. Kier sounds delightful! Much like Mrs. Kuenstner the librarian from my grade school- except she didn't write a novel or play, she just encouraged me to read. Great story- particularly loved her wisdom in guiding your trip choice to Indiana!
September 20th, 2014
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