Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-20
jim BISHOP
Godfrey Family
Had q Genius

She was tall. And straight.
There was a double braid of
copper hair wound around
her head. 1t is white now
but, in the time of which
I speak, Mrs. Katherine God
frey was a rare woman. She
was filled with perpetual OPP
timism, beautiful music, sub
lime faith in a husband who
had lost his own, and a
faculty for making hard luck
look like a blessing.
1t wasn't easy. She had
five children: Arthur, Kathy,
Charlie, Bob and Dorothy
Jean. The family was so poor
that one Christmas all they
had to eat was mashed pota-
toes and gravy. There were
no gifts, no tree, nothing but
the amazing love that all the
Godfreys had for each other.
This is better than food,
but the little Godfreys missed
lots of meals. 1t wasn't any
ones fault. Dad Godfrey was
a good man caught in the
wrong era. He was an
EngliShman by birth, and an
expert writer on hackney
horses. These are high-step-
ping trotters and they were
being replaced by the
Chalmers. the Chandler, the
bort and the Stanley
Steamer at a time when Mr..
Godfrey was prepared to en-
tighten readers about nags.
DON'T WORRY, Darl',"
Mrs. Godfrey used to say.
Your ship will come in" 1t
didn't. 1t never would. But
Dad Godfrey wore spats,
sported a cane, hob-nobbed
with the VanderbiltS and
Whitneys, and owed the
butcher, the grocer, the shoe
maker all merchants in
Hasbrouck Heights, N. j. The
only unforgivable thing he
ever did was to die early.
That left the whole family
with no one to tell them what
it was going to be like when
the ship came in.
Katherine Godfrey insisted
that all her children were
geniuseS. You are" she
would say. "Someday you will
all be on the stage. You'll
be famous. You can sing,
dance. compose. You're gen.
fuses" They weren't. But it
was nice to hear because whe
was sincere. She truly be-
lieved it. She still argues that
she was right because her
oldest boy. Arthur, is famous;
Kathy was a radio announcer
when she was 16; Dorothy
Jean is playwright.
Could anyone ask more
proof? Mother played the
piano in a silent movie house
and earned Sc a week. She
composed music; she could
make a fairy queen costume
for one of her girls out of
an old newspaper and a dozen
straight pins; Arthur had a
bakery route when he was
10; Charlie delivered milk and
sneaked two quarts into the
house every day; the kids
would walk eight miles to
deliver a package and mother
would walk eitht miles to
Paterson to sell crocheting
and walk back to save trolley
fare.
This, my friends, was a
family. Arthur, at Is, was
the new father. ordering the
others to help clean the
house, sell the empty soda
bottles, make the beds, empty
the garbage. Twice in his
life. matters became so bad
that he could stand it no
longer, and both times he ran
away. Once he got a job in
Ohio. Once he joined the
Navy.
The gas and electricity had
been shut off many times.
Once, when a woman de-
livered a basket of food out
of charity, Mrs. Katherine
Godfrey carried the basket
back to the car. dropped it
inside with a large thank
you, and said: You must
have the wrong family"
For a long while, the
family lived on peanut but
ter for all meals. When money
came in, Mrs. Godfrey bought
l5-cent margarine for the
bread. Whats margarine?"
the children said. Mother
beamed. 1T isn't fattening,"
she said. "They just take the
butter out of it."
When a youngster COM
planned of having nothing to
do, Mrs. Godfrey would look
to heaven for forgiveness.
There's always something to
do" she would say. "See how
many flat stones you can
find. Then figure out a game
to play with them. Find
colony of ants and watch
them. Make perfume out of
flower petals. Do something
nice for somebody, like cut
ting somebody's lawn when
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