Unexpected

My Mom learned that she was expecting me shortly after she had begun working as Dr. Harry's partner. In the 1950s, many employers "released" pregnant women from their work duties: the assumption was that a woman who had a child could not pursue a career. Dr. Harry, however, assured my Mom that she could continue to practice medicine throughout her pregnancy and after she delivered the baby. Dr. Harry, like Mom, was European, and he came from a culture in which easily half of the practicing physicians were women.

Mom kept working. She made one accommodation: she refused to make a housecall on the day before I was born. She couldn't drive. She had pushed the car seat so far back to accommodate her belly, that her feet no longer reached the gas pedal.

Until the pregnancy, my Parents had been living in a rental apartment. They decided to buy one of the homes under construction in a nearby, new development.

Friends lent my Parents money for a downpayment. When my Parents visited the bank to secure a mortgage, the bank refused to consider Mom's wages as part of the family's income. As a result, the bank initially denied the loan. The man, after all, was the "bread winner," and women worked only for "pocket money." Besides, a woman might get pregnant, and then her income would evaporate, jeopardizing the family's ability to pay its mortgage.

The bank came around after Dr. Harry vouched for Mom. My parents moved into the house about seven months before I arrived.

Suburban Chicago, December 1958. The house stood on a quiet street.