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Show 26 OH SAY CAN YOU SEE? Over a radio microphone, into the nation's and F.D.R.'s ears, Grandma sang "The Star Spangled Banner." "Oh say can you see," she sang, my grandma who ironed for nickels and scrubbed for dimes, "by the dawn's early l i g h t , what so proudly we hailed." Everybody in Boulder City recommended her for the program because they'd heard her at lots of funerals. A big black open car f u l l of VIPs delivered her home from the dedication ceremony. She waved good-bye. That's what my Daddy told me. I think she sang by the memorial, in between the statues-broad-chested men flanked by t a l l s t i f f wings pointing skyward. I hope those 96 men who died building the dam got f l u f f i e r wings or else they probably never will f l y out of their graves. More than anything, I remember the dam and that story about Grandma. But there was an atom bomb test too-a r ip in the sky, a gash that showed the sky's insides just for a minute. I remember thinking about my Band-Aid box. I never could have unwrapped enough Band-Aids even i f I pulled the red string exactly down the side crease without tearing into the f l a t side of the paper where the red letters are printed. After that minute passed, the sky's blood and the earth's dust made a big cloud, a busy one. It drifts over my mind sometimes. |