Duck and Cover: A Nuclear Family

by Kathie Farnell

A short story memoir of life in the segregated South as seen through the innocent eyes of a young white girl

Duck and Cover is a wry, laconic memoir penned by Kathie Farnell, based on her perspective as a smart-mouthed, unreasonably optimistic white girl growing up in Cloverdale, a genteel and neatly landscaped neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During those decades Montgomery's social order was slowly―very slowly―changing. The bus boycott was over if not forgotten, Normandale Shopping Center had a display of the latest fallout shelters, and integration was on the horizon, though many still thought the water in the white and colored drinking fountains came from separate tanks.

Farnell's household, more like the Addams family than the Cleavers of Leave it to Beaver, included socially ambitious parents who were lawyers, two younger brothers, a live-in grandmother, and Libby, the family maid. Her father was a one-armed rageaholic given to strange business deals such as the one resulting in the family unintentionally owning a bakery. Mama, the quintessential attorney, could strike a jury but was hopeless at making Jello. Granny, a curmudgeon who kept a chamber pot under her bed, was always at odds with Libby, who had been in a bad mood since the bus boycott began.

Farnell deftly recounts tales of aluminum Christmas trees, the Hula-Hoop craze, road trips in the family's un-air-conditioned black Bel Air, show-and-tell involving a human skeleton, belatedly learning to swear, and even the pet chicken she didn't know she had. Her well-crafted prose reveals quirky and compelling characters in stories that don't ignore the dark side of the segregated South, as told from the wide-eyed perspective of a girl who is sometimes oblivious to and often mystified by its byzantine rules. Little did she know that the Age of Aquarius was just around the corner.

152 pages, Hardcover

Published April 4, 2017

Reviews

[~mad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a native of Montgomery, attended Cloverdale Junior High School and grew up in that area in the late '50's and early 60's which is when I grew up in Montgomery before moving to Alaska, dad was military, for junior high school on an air base.

Some of t sounded familiar to me - but most not as I missed junior high school at Cloverdale, moving back to Montgomery for high school at Lanier. I didn't know that s many "hot shots" for lack of a better word, moved over to their first year of high school at Jeff Davis. I thought we had our own plethora of"hotshots".

It just took me and evening to read. The writing is just so so, but I read it straight through. It's only a 134 pages long!

I recommend for any of you Montgomery folks!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farnell's memoir is a series of vignettes told from the viewpoint of a young girl growing up in Montgomery, Al during a time of social change. The time is the late 50's and early 60's. Kathie is an often naive and sometimes wise observer of the activities of those around her. Her parents are lawyers. Her mother is mystified by anything domestic and her father flies into unreasonable rages. Kathie relates her family life and school days with a large dose of humor and irony. The fear of nuclear war, peace demonstrations and integration figure in her life. I found this book to be a very enjoyable read.

[Anne Vandenbrink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kathie Farnell recounts those decades when Montgomery’s social order was slowly—very slowly—changing. Normandale Shopping Center had a display of the latest fallout shelters, and integration was on the horizon—though many still thought the water in the white and colored drinking fountains came from separate tanks. But Katie was more concerned with mean teachers and summer vacations. She describes tales of aluminum Christmas trees, the Hula-Hoop craze, and road trips in the family's un-air-conditioned black Bel Air. I enjoyed reading this book.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun!

[Marianne Hallum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wrote something similar in 9 th grade. Only my teacher corrected grammar, run on sentences and lack of thoughts that flow. Disappointing