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AUG. 6, 2003 -- Dr. Emmett "Duke" Murray's memoir of
his childhood opens with a simple map of the old north side
neighborhood, showing the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, Horace Mann
Elementary School and Baxter's Woods. From there, the world gradually expands as the book follows an observant, impressionable boy through the formative experiences of his youth and finally to college and military service in World War II. The book recalls Murray's father, who worked on the construction of Lima Stadium, and his mother, a "financial genius" who bought insurance for a dime a week. Young Duke emerges as a likely lad who was encouraged and helped by just about everyone he encountered. One neighbor employed him as "boy-in-residence," hiring him for odd jobs, such as capturing night crawlers for fish bait. Another, a college graduate, helped Murray chart his academic course after his education advanced beyond that of his parents, who left school after eighth grade. Murray's path eventually led to medical school and 42 years in family practice in Lima. He remembers his hometown in "Come Reminisce with Me: Stories of Growing Up in the 1930s in the Midwest." The book won't be available until next month, but Murray will talk about it at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Allen County Museum. He will be in town for the 60th anniversary reunion of his graduating class from Central High School. Murray didn't plan to return to Lima after medical school. He expected to settle in Columbus and specialize in radiology. But during an internship at what was then St. Rita's Hospital, he said this week, "I found out I liked talking to people, and these were my kind of people around here." Murray has a reputation as a storyteller and humorist. Looking back more than 60 years, he fills his book with not only sights but also sounds, smells and tastes from a bygone time. He describes Saturday night in downtown Lima as "a big block party": "People would sit in their cars with their windows down and greet acquaintances in the passing parade. The aroma of caramel corn from Dome's Nut Shop wafted over the whole downtown area, beckoning the customers who stood in line." There are touching stories about tramps through Baxter's Woods with a boyhood friend and about the funeral of Murray's beloved Uncle Charlie. Most episodes end with some small but enduring "lesson learned." These stories have lingered in Murray's memory for decades, the lessons sometimes becoming evident only long after the fact. Like many of his generation, he was clearly marked by the Depression. Even today, he said, his eyes habitually gravitate to the bottom of a restaurant menu, where the cheaper entrees are listed. "As a young person, I didn't really know times were as tough as people talk about now," he said this week. "My dad was a carpentry foreman and he was never out of work. " We didn't have extravagant things, but we always had what we needed." On the other hand, he added, "We knew there were shoe repair shops in nearly every block downtown. When your shoes wore out, you didn't throw them out, you had them resoled." The Murrays saw the Depression in the faces of the hobos who came to their back door seeking a meal or any kind of work. Young Duke often talked with such men in the hobo camp near what neighborhood boys called the "second culvert," midway between the city limits and Cable Road. In time, some of Murray's childhood neighbors became his patients. He retired in 1995 and now lives in Fort Myers, Fla. But he learned to love Lima during hard times in the '30s, and his feelings have never changed. "Lima has been knocked down many times, but it's always gotten back up," he said. "It's never failed to answer the bell for the next round." |