Giving the infant Duion a bath on McKay Street in the winter of 1961 was a challenging ordeal, The grate in the coal furnace in the basement was broken so D.J. was placed in charge of watching his brother who remained in a crib located in the front bedroom while I descended to face the task of making a fire.
I propped up the grate in the furnace and by careful stacking of coal, kindling and wadded up newspapers, according to my estimation, managed to start a fire in as noteworthy a fashion as did the pioneer women in the Kentucky days of Daniel Boone’s era. This being the hill of McKay Street, I was quite proud of perfecting my fire making skills,
With warm air coming up the register and the kitchen heated, Duion was immersed in the water of an oval pan to splash around for his morning bath ritual on the kitchen counter.
Our daily routine provided D.J. with a reason for practicing his making unusual faces to keep his brother entertained and me with kindling and old newspaper use.
Big Brother D.J. was glad to be involved in caring for his brother because when Duion was born, D.J. had a cold and was not allowed to be full face on top of his baby brother until he was over his sneezes and sniffles.
When he was able to hold Duion for the first time, I remember how happy he was sitting on the couch in the living room, his face beaming and telling every family member who passed by, “I’m getting to hold my baby brother! I’m getting to hold my baby brother!”
The winter of 1961 was a memorable year of brothers and keeping warm on a Kentucky hill, We were all stronger for having lived that year on McKay Street.