BUZZY
My Adventurous Short Life
by
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We went lobstering almost every morning. When you lobster you have a buoy that you pick up, a bottle to keep the warp, which is rope, more warp, and the lobster trap. One day my grandfather and I were out lobstering in our rubber raft. The rubber raft is a navy surplus one. The sides are blown up with air, but the sides are not very strong. Soon we were almost finished lobstering, but we had to haul one more trap. When we hauled that trap the corner of it punctured a hole in the rubber side. My grandfather and I swam ashore and my two brothers, who were on the shore, swam out and salvaged anything that was afloat. One day when we were out at recess I had to go back in and get a whistle for our teacher. As soon as I got in the room there was a fire alarm. Everyone thought it was just a practice drill until the fire engines came whipping around the corner. They ran in the school but couldn’t find a fire anywhere. Then our principal, Mr. Boswell, spotted a broken fire alarm box right outside our classroom. Everybody said that I accidentally broke it. But I will swear on any bible that I didn’t. One day while I was alone I decided to bake a cake. I went to the cupboard and took out vinegar, flour, yeast, turnips, salt and pepper, sugar and coffee grounds. I put this all in a cookie sheet and stuck it in the broiler. That yeast sure worked awfully good. When my mother came home, I asked her to take my nice cake out of the broiler. Boy oh boy, what a beautiful mess. It took my mother 2 days to clean out the oven. I gave a piece of my cake to our dog. He went outside and vomited, but I think it would have been a good cake.
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About the Book
This is a unique story written by my brother Buzzy, as an autobiography assignment at age 13, two weeks before he died suddenly of acute childhood leukemia in 1957. You can imagine my amazement and wonder at finding this account of his life while cleaning out my mother’s house decades later. I shared copies of it with all the family members, who have found it immensely valuable as we continue to heal from the loss of our brother, son, cousin, nephew and grandson. I have illustrated the text in a manner to evoke the simple creative joy of what a young boy’s adventurous life was like before there were digital devices. The story also serves to honor all children who have lost their lives too soon and to help siblings and parents of these children focus on celebrating the short and rich lives of their loved ones.