A Tiny Piece of Sky (26 page)

A TINY PIECE OF Sky
is a work of fiction, but the Baums' story is inspired by the real-life experiences of Albert A. Beck in Hagerstown, Maryland, prior to the second World War. Albert and his wife, Mildred, built and ran Beck's Tavern and Restaurant on North Jonathan Street beginning in the late 1920s. The restaurant was billed as an “Eating Place of Wide Renown,” enjoying much success and popularity until the business was sold in 1965. Albert and Mildred were my grandparents.

Beck's Restaurant had two dining rooms along with a lunch counter and bar, and as written in this novel, customers were entertained every evening by a Hammond electric organ and on many weekends by the Jack Frost Orchestra, led by George Maurice “Jack” Frost. Just as in the story, Beck's Restaurant was situated on the edge of Jonathan Street—the three blocks in Hagerstown that are an historically African American neighborhood and the site of the first African American churches, city homes, and businesses in Washington County.

Albert Beck was born in 1890 in Jefferson, Missouri, to German parents. He married Mildred Newman in 1927, and they had three daughters: Mildred, MaryAnn, and Patricia. My mother—Patricia—often told me stories about how she was teased as a young girl, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when classmates at school discovered that her father was of German descent. I grew up hearing stories of her family's restaurant; about rumors of spying; about how
German
was a dirty word back then; about Bismarck, their dog, and Dixie, their pony. Bismarck was, in fact, a real dog—a German shepherd—who would often carry bags of potatoes and other restaurant items in his teeth from Beck's to the other restaurant Albert owned across town, The Arcade. Dixie, too, was a real pony. Although the real Dixie wasn't a former rodeo star, she could perform many tricks, including counting and saying her prayers.

Although Frankie, Joan, and Elizabeth, as well as Hermann and Mildred Baum, are inspired by real people and grounded in real world events, these characters—and all of the other characters in this novel—and their situations are products of my own imagination.

I began thinking about writing this book long ago, after my grandmother died. We were cleaning out her apartment and found letters in a drawer addressed to Albert Beck from several civic organizations about the rumors of espionage. These letters were all dated January 1938, incidentally, well before the war began in Europe. When I read them, I knew then that this was a story I needed to write. Because those letters were, for me, where the story began, I chose to include them in this book exactly as they were written.

One other piece of history included in this story is the episode of
The Shadow
that Frankie listens to with her grandmother. I did take liberties with its air date, though. That particular episode aired in December of 1938.

Albert Beck died a few years after the boycott, not a few
weeks
after, as written in this novel. But after his death, my grandmother, with the help of her three daughters, continued to run the business and watched it truly become what Albert hoped it would be—an eating place of wide renown.

For me, writing is often a long journey, through places that are sometimes pleasant and sometimes dark and terrible. It's while in those dark and terrible places that I am most grateful for the lightkeepers who helped show me the way out of the woods: Patricia Beard, Heidi Potterfield, Erin Loomis, Elisabeth Dahl, Elissa Brent Weissman, Carol Lynch Williams, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Greg Leitich Smith, and Annemarie O'Brien.

Thanks to Jill Santopolo, my incomparable editor, who pointed me in the right direction, handed me the map, and made sure I didn't get lost. Thanks also to Talia Benamy and everyone else at Philomel who had a hand in shepherding this book along the way.

My agent, Sarah Davies, believed I could find my way if I told a story from my heart. Thank you, Sarah.

At the beginning of the road were Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty and students who saw early drafts of this book and gave me a pat on the head and told me to keep going, even when my feet were tired: Tim Wynne-Jones, Alan Cumyn, Ellen Howard, Gene Brenek, and Allyson Valentine-Schrier.

Thanks to Nancy Pope, curator and historian at the National Postal Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, for helping me figure out how long it would take for letters from Hagerstown to arrive in York, Pennsylvania, in 1939. Several days, as it turns out. Gratitude also goes to Dan Letchworth, copy editor supreme, for correcting all my mistakes and then some. Great snakes, you are dee-vine.

My family went on their own journey down memory lane as
I wrote this book, whether they wanted to or not, and graciously answered my many, many questions about their life in the 1930s, about my grandparents, and about that little place called Beck's: my mom, MaryAnn and Big Paul Mundey, Millie Heinbaugh, Charles Heinbaugh, and Shirley Shirey. For that, I am indebted.

And speaking of family, I would not have been able to write even one single word of this book if it weren't for the lives of Mildred and Albert A. Beck and that wonderful restaurant they ran for so many years.

Most especially, thank you to my husband, Andy, and my daughter, Opal, for love. What a journey this has turned out to
be.

Looking for more?
Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
Discover your next great read!