Books and Black Holes
How My Encyclopedia Set and Strange Fate Helped Me Cross Paths With Stephen Hawking
During my elementary school years, Mami rarely purchased new clothes for me. I often wore secondhand clothes that came from other family members or worse, from a yard sale. Buying me any trendy or expensive clothes were in her words, “dinero perdido”, a waste of money.
When Sasson, and Gitano jeans were all the rage, and my classmates were showing them off, she made it quite clear that I was not getting a pair. She never wavered from her stance and I was stuck with my ugly clothes. The money that could have been spent to save me from the humiliation of ill-fitting clothes, was spent on my brand new, leather-bound, World Book Encyclopedia set.
I can still remember the salesman who showed up at our small, first floor apartment in Bridgeport. The older man with the crinkled, grey suit and ugly tie, quickly introduced himself and rolled his massive suitcase into our living room.
Mami was clearly not surprised by this visitor and I began to wonder how long she had been planning this. I was hoping to disappear back into my room, but I knew the drill, leaving was not an option. My role was to serve as her emergency interpreter.
In 1959, at the age of seventeen, Mami arrived in Connecticut from Puerto Rico. She disliked the cold climate, but the opportunities in the States were enticing enough for her to leave her parents and give this new life and language a try.
By the time I began school in 1979, ESL programs and bilingual education, were readily available in many school districts across the state. My first language was Spanish which I had learned from my paternal grandmother, but English soon became my dominant language to read and write in.
I often resented this interpreter role, but I also understood at a very early age that I had a responsibility to help my parents.
I silently prayed that the presentation would be short, but he was a salesman, and he had been invited into our home. I was certain that he would not be leaving any time soon.
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This was happening during a time in the pre-internet era when Tupperware and Avon “parties” were popular for women in the Latino communities to host in their homes. They involved silly games, door prizes, finger foods, and all sorts of layaway plans to pay for large purchases. I expected this would be no different and hoped that there would be a gift for listening to his sales pitch, perhaps something far more exciting than another Tupperware mug.
Mami and I sat together on our emerald green sofa with the clear, vinyl cover. It was not my favorite place to sit, but she had already offered the salesman our good chair.
He smiled at me as he set up his impressive display. I watched as he carefully pulled out each of the brick red volumes with the gold trim. These books were worthy to be on display.
I was a kid who loved to read, and often borrowed several books at a time from our school library. I had few books to call my own and the ones I did own were quite used, with multiple markings and torn pages. Some had come from the discarded library book pile, or the trash bin at school, and a few others from the free box at yard sales.
Seeing these brand new books sitting on our coffee table made my heart race. I no longer cared about designer jeans, or sneakers, I had to have these books.
They were very expensive and the truth was that we were broke. My dad was the only one working at the time and his job barely covered the monthly expenses. I knew it would be a sacrifice, and when my mom signed her name to the contract I felt guilty, but I was also elated.
When my first volume arrived, volume 1, letter “A”, I ran into my room and sat there for hours trying to read every entry. I repeated this routine each day after school. By the time my next volume arrived, letter “B”, I had completely finished reading the first volume from cover to cover.
My head was exploding with random facts and information. I now knew information on Apollo 11, anacondas, and black holes. My eleven year old self was not entirely interested in any of the scientific information, but it was stored in my head with everything else I had learned. I was quickly moving on to the next volume.
Several months later, during the end of my summer vacation, my mom had to run an errand in New Haven. New Haven was not any different from Bridgeport, perhaps with less crime, but they did have a nicer, indoor mall with a Macy’s.
I nagged my mom to take me there to look at “back to school”outfits. I knew we did not have the money to buy anything, but I wanted to see what the latest fashion trends would be. To my surprise, she agreed. I was happy to finally be inside of a Macy’s department store. It was a huge step up from Kmart’s “blue light special”. My mom stopped at the clearance rack and I kept making strides in hopes of finding the jeans section.
I stopped momentarily to look at myself in a long mirror along the aisle. The only mirror we owned at home was attached to the medicine cabinet and I was truly surprised to see how much taller I had grown over the summer. I had grown several more inches and had surpassed both of my parents in height.
In the reflection I spotted a man a few feet away in a motorized wheelchair. I had never seen one up close, but I had seen a photo of a man in a similar one in my encyclopedia. I turned completely around to look at him again, he looked somewhat familiar to me, but I was not sure where I had seen him before. He was by himself in the middle of the aisle, but it appeared that a woman he was with was also looking through the racks nearby.
When I looked at him that second time, I froze. It was him. The man from volume 2, letter “B”, Stephen Hawking. The black hole guy was only a few feet away from me.
He was oblivious to me and my gawking, or perhaps he did notice me and was pretending not to. My brain had a difficult time trying to pull up the information I had stored way back in my “science section” and I felt truly unworthy of the moment.
I turned around to tell someone, anyone, but nobody was around to tell. It was just Stephen and I. I had no camera to document the moment, and he was unable to sign anything for me to keep, so I tried to think of something to say that would sound smart.
Would I tell him I had learned about him in my encyclopedia? Would I tell him I truly did not understand what a black hole was? I figured I would start with a “hello” and go from there. Time had stood still and I probably had been standing there for several minutes when I heard my mom calling out for me. I took one final look at him and silently walked away to find her.
I tried explaining it all to my mom, but my words were coming out faster than she could comprehend. I tried again in Spanish and was having a harder time remembering the word for physicist. I knew she truly loved science and would have appreciated meeting him too.
We went back to the section where I had initially spotted him, but Mr. Hawking and his companion had already moved on. I could not see the duo anywhere on the floor.
I really did not understand the how or why Mr. Hawking would be at the Chapel Square Mall, but years later I figured he must have been attending a workshop or symposium at nearby Yale University. The Chapel Square Mall eventually closed its doors in the early 90’s and were later turned into apartments.
We walked around for a little longer and I continued to look for him, but he was gone. We left with no purchases in hand, but I had a goofy smile on my face, and a great story to one day share.
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