Documented Life     An Autodocumentary     Miles Hochstein

Above: Miles on Paul's lap, photoprocessing date, December 1964.

 

Upon returning from Sweden, at around Thanksgiving time, we received a puppy (mostly poodle) from my mother's sister, my aunt Swish.

We named her Tak, Swedish for thank you.

When we chose Tak's name I called her and she came barreling across the living room toward me. Tak lived many years, and died when I was in college. She was a very good dog.

From 1964 and our return to the United States come more memory fragments.

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I camped out in a small tent in the back yard and was badly bitten by insects.

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My brother and I ran around and played in the back yard, just as in the picture below. We had metal cars with pedals, a tent, and various toys.

Left: I am dodging my father's camera (left), while playing with my brother Evon Hochstein (right). We are in the back yard of the rented brick house on Markam Avenue in Durham North Carolina, in the year following our family's stay in Sweden. Provenance: I date this picture based on the memory of the brick house in the background during that time frame, and my youthful appearance in this picture. This could be as late as 1965, since we may not have left that house in 1964, but because my brother appears to be under 3, and I do not look to be over 5 and a half, 1964 seems to be the most reasonable date.

My parents took me to a child psychologist and I played chess with him, and did things with puppets. I think they were worried that I was excessively shy.

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Near the brick house there were high tension wires. Something about those wires, and their ugliness, remains with me. From this period I have a feeling of fear and uncertainty.

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One cold winter morning I watched my father slide all the way down the icy driveway to the street. It was funny, but I wasn't supposed to laugh.

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My mother paid a seamstress to make "Batman and Robin" capes for my brother and for me.

I also attended a nursery school. I'm the fifth child from the left, or right, in a yellow rain coat. Apparently I attended a nursery school called "Long Meadow Farms." I remember little about it, except that the folding wooden room divider in the right rear is remembered with perfect clarity.

Right: Evon Hochstein, Gianna Hochstein, and Miles Hochstein, in what is probably a Christmas photo from 1964 or 1965. No date on photo. It is stored in a fancy sleeves, so that's why I think it might have been a holiday photo.

 

The five year period of 1964 to mid-1969 is defined in my memory by three separate houses in which we lived: the brick house on Markam Avenue (spelling?), the Bivens Street house, and finally, in the last year in North Carolina, the Spencer Street house.

(1) I estimate that the brick house (above) includes most of 1964.

(2) By January of 1965 we have a picture of ourselves at the Bivens Street house. I estimate that our residence at the Bivens Street house stretched from late 1964 through the summer of 1968.

(3) I am certain that we lived in the Spencer Street house for only one year, from summer of 1968 until the summer of 1969. My parents had that house built to their specifications.

 

At home in Durham North Carolina

 

revised February 2005