Tales of Divorce: Your Contested Objects
Friday, May 07, 2010
-
The contested owl of Zelina Blagden's parents.
The Civilians are listening to your divorce tales. We'll post a new question each week and we'll plan to showcase some of your responses at our WNYC Greene Space event on June 28th. The current topic: The Museum of Contested Objects.
This is our collection of what your parents had to say about their divorce. Contribute your story here.
Like this song, Us, about Sam Bisbee parents' break-up.
And check out the screenplay we got from Gibson Frazier.
Here are a few more of your responses:
Name: Zelina Blagden
New York
Dad did this owl sculpture in the 1960's. A funny detail: the eyes came from a leopard skin rug that was in my great-grandparents' cabin in the Adirondacks. They were married from 1968 to 1990 or so. Not sure about that because it got dragged on and on during the divorce and divide of EVERYTHING.
Mom claimed she didn't know where the owl was and never gave it back to my father until her house caught on fire a few years ago. The owl emerged out of the water-soaked basement! My dad says she had selective amnesia about the things she didn't want to give up, but the owl is now happily back with my father and my mother often comes by for tea! They are good friends now.
Name: Paige
Point Pleasant, NJ
My parents were divorced when I was about 22 years old. It was, for the most part, a simple, amicable divorce. There was, however, one item that caused much grief and is still (I am 36 now) a sore subject. My dad, a die-hard Miami Dolphin fan, had a fleece blanket with the team logo on it. My mother insisted that she get the blanket in the settlement! She won, my dad relented, but my brother and I still plan to steal it one day. We cannot figure out why that blanket was such a big deal!
Name: Beth
San Diego
For my parents, the most contested object of the divorce was our family photo album. It was just a single album, filled with baby photos of my sister and me, along with my parents, their parents, and an awesome array of 60s clothing and hairstyles. When I was about 8 years old, my Dad stole the album from my Mom's closet, and then blamed her for losing it. The album remained hidden for more than 10 years, with my Dad claiming ignorance.
It miraculously resurfaced around the time that I graduated from high school. My Mom begged for copies, and my Dad continued to promise them to her for 4 years, never delivering on the promise. I finally took matters into my own hands, secretly took the photo album myself (and by "secretly took" I really mean "stole"), and made 2 new albums for both of them. I gave my Mom her copy on Mother's Day, nearly 12 years after she supposedly lost it. It's still one of the greatest gifts I've ever given her.
Jodi
Stamford, CT
My grandmother and her second husband married in their 50s and divorced in their 70s. They fought over who would keep the industrial-sized container of plastic wrap that sat on their kitchen counter. Everything in their lives was wrapped in plastic, so this was a huge bone of contention. It also explains a lot.
Carol R. Blucher
Mamaroneck, NY
My divorce: My then husband returned from a business/vacation trip early. As I entered the house with my 3 daughters, I ducked as he tried to kiss me. Immediately my oldest daughter said, "Getting a divorce, huh." Children don't have to be told. They know. He had been running around with other women for 10 years. I waited until my youngest was 7.
M
New York, NY
My parents fought over no objects. When my mother left, she didn't want anything. Including the children.
Name: John Shibley
Maine
My father is an antique dealer and auctioneer, and so our home, while modest in many ways, often had extraordinary objects in it. As a child I ate my meals off a marble top table. At the time, it seemed like an enormous slab of marble - maybe 7 feet by 4, and it was white and cool, and my father remarked often enough about it's uniqueness that I noticed it then and remember it now.
It became my source of familial pride - we didn't have a second house at the shore, but I ate dinner off a marble top table, so there. When the divorce happened, my father moved out. One day we came home and found that the marble top table had disappeared. In its place was a cheap kitchen set. The table was blue, and it rocked on two shiny tubular legs. It was too small for the dining room. My mother didn't fight my father for the marble top table. She didn't fight him for anything, now that I think about it. I wish she had.
_slide_last_image.jpg "A group of artists get together at Postmasters in Chelsea to explore art (Gerhard Richter's) and the market. Rafael Rozendaal's 'net art piece 'Color Flip' is seen here.")
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.