Happy Mother's Day--70 Years Late

May 10, 2009
In 1939 (Monday, September 25th, on a warm and beautiful day to be exact), Dorothy Dake Littig set out to document her family's history. It was a gift for her infant son Lawrence, born 14 months earlier in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Some people create baby books to scrapbook the first steps, doctor's reports, and baptisms. Dorothy did one better and wrote an extensive narrative.

However, somewhere along the way the journal--a ruled and paginated law ledger--strayed from their possession. It never reached its intended recipient but got lost in boxes, disposed by mistake, and commandeered by other diarists. One jotted down thoughts for a future paper ("idea for a current situation for a global economic position") while another had more creative aspirations ("Stay focused....continue on the return path to art"). And then, most cryptically, is a note about Haiti where the journal may or may not have journeyed. Though successive owners had Dorothy's ambitions to fill the remaining pages, none got past a paragraph. The diary was no longer of practical use.

Which leads to the other night when we came across Mrs. Littig's work while trawling for books outside of the Strand, aka the dollar bin. Still in pristine condition, her beautiful fountain penmanship hardly faded, we were shocked by its homelessness at the corner of 12th Street and Broadway. Bringing it back to the Freebird book hospital, my girlfriend Casey seized the initiative. Several Google searches later (via obituaries, wedding announcements, staff listings, white pages), she tracked little Larry to his home in Westchester County.

Yesterday Casey spoke with Larry and pledged to return the book. He couldn't have been more gracious or more pleased. We would love to meet him in person. In the meanwhile we will have to go by his mother's accounts of him:

"Larry has had several nicknames. When he was tiny, he couldn't say Larry well, so he said 'Lolly'-then John [an older brother] called him 'Lolly Pop' and so came the two names 'Lol' and 'Pop'-'Pop' has stuck. As to Larry's real name of Lawrence, he has hardly ever heard that."

"During the presidential election excitement in the Fall of 1940, Larry heard the children...say the following jingle--which he also learned to say--and loved to say!

"Willkie in the White House
Winding up the clock;
Roosevelt in the garbage can
Licking up the slop!"

Dorothy's entries conclude on page 76. She notes that "I'm glad that this book is at last up to date. I'll try to do better in the future." We certainly don't hold that lack of follow through against her. It is still an impressive time capsule of society and parenthood seven decades ago.

Happy Mother's Day Dorothy. And Casey's mom!
--Peter Miller