Sunday
Jul. 25, 1999
At the Party
Poem: "At the Party," by Patricia Goedicke from The Tongues We Speak (Milkweed Editions).
It is the twenty-first birthday of Louise Brown. She was THE FIRST TEST TUBE BABY when she was born in Oldham, England.
It's the birthday in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1951 of novelist ROBYN CARR, who went to school first to become a nurse, then turned to writing. She wrote historical novels like The Blue Falcon, By Right of Arms, and Woman's Own; and her latest is the thriller, Mind Tryst.
It was on this day in 1944 that the ALLIES BROKE THROUGH GERMAN DEFENSES IN NORMANDY, FRANCE and began moving east toward Germany. D-day had taken place in early June, and German resistance brought the Allies to a standstill only about 20 miles inland. On July 25th Allied planes carpet-bombed several square miles west of the village of Saint Lo. On the 26th, the U.S. First Army poured in.
It's the birthday in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, of NANCY HOPPER (1937), the author of several novels for young readers, including The Seven-and-One-Half Sins of Stacey Kendall, and I Was a Fifth-Grade Zebra.
It's the birthday in Knoxville, Tennessee, 1933 of writer DAVID MADDEN, author of several volumes of poetry, plays and short stories, but best known for his novels, particularly Cassandra Singing (1969).
It's the birthday in St. Paul, 1927, of writer MIDGE DECTER, author of The Liberated Woman and Other Americans (1970). She was the editor at Commentary magazine and was a staunch critic of the women's movement, asserting that modern birth control, not the movement itself, was responsible for advances by women in society.
It's the birthday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1907, of JOHNNY HODGES, the famous alto sax player with Duke Ellington's bands. He was a self-taught musician who joined Ellington's band in the spring of 1928.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®