{"id":67560,"date":"2014-03-05T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T21:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=67560"},"modified":"2014-03-07T13:57:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T18:57:14","slug":"the-child-is-father-of-the-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/05\/the-child-is-father-of-the-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Child Is Father of the Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/THUMB_Alfred-marie-babyalfred.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-67564\" alt=\"THUMB_Alfred-marie-babyalfred\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/THUMB_Alfred-marie-babyalfred.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/THUMB_Alfred-marie-babyalfred.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/THUMB_Alfred-marie-babyalfred-300x290.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time, a very nice couple whom I didn\u2019t know very well threw some kind of party. I can\u2019t remember what the occasion was, but I do know that they lived in a nice apartment near the Broadway-Lafayette F stop, and that I went to the party with a former boyfriend. It proved to be a memorable evening.<\/p>\n<p>We made small talk with lots of nice people. At some point we found ourselves clustered together with two other couples; at least one component of each was an architect. Some public figure had just come out as gay, and one of the guests said something innocuous about the importance of being true to oneself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, I agree,\u201d said one of the women, blandly. \u201cTake my father-in-law, for instance. It wasn\u2019t until he got terminal cancer that he was able to tell the world who he really was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was that?\u201d said my ex-boyfriend. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA nineteenth-century baby.\u201d she said. \u201cHis true desire had always been to dress in a gown and a bonnet. And when he had his fiftieth college reunion\u201d\u2014here she mentioned an Ivy League university\u2014\u201che said he wanted to show his classmates who he really was. So my husband wheeled him around in a large pram, and he carried a silver rattle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a silence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere did you get the pram?\u201d I finally asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to get it made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We drank in silence.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, when I feel tired or dispirited and want to stay home, I remind myself of this incident. Because life is full of wonderful surprises.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once upon a time, a very nice couple whom I didn\u2019t know very well threw some kind of party. I can\u2019t remember what the occasion was, but I do know that they lived in a nice apartment near the Broadway-Lafayette F stop, and that I went to the party with a former boyfriend. It proved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4393,13115],"tags":[9489,8393,450,13083,13082,13084],"class_list":["post-67560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-babies","tag-cancer","tag-parties","tag-prams","tag-small-talk","tag-wtf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Child Is Father of the Man by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 5, 2014 \u2013 Once upon a time, a very nice couple whom I didn\u2019t know very well threw some kind of party. 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