Regina Cohen - April 18, 1982
Memories
Mm-hm.
He was ash...he knew—well, people would say, "Where is your mother from? She speaks with an accent." He uh, he was ashamed to say that I was in a concentration camp. I said, "Well your dad speaks with an accent too Darren, and it's a British accent. And if it bothers you, you don't have to tell 'em." Uh, my daughter never uh, she knows a lot. But she doesn't know my day to day...
Details.
...detail. She doesn't know those. She knows where I was, how many kids were in the family, she knows their names. Uh, she doesn't know anything when I was little yet, you know, from, from the time I remember.
Mm-hm.
Funny, I can remember when I was two years old, a song that my father used to sing to me. And I can't remember some things that a whole year had gone. There's certain things that...
Blocked out.
Blocked. Total disaster. And many times I thought, "If I could just—maybe I should go to a, a—get hypnotized." Would it come out? I don't know.
Would you want to?
At times I think I'd like to really know. It's, uh...
You feel you lost that time?
Yeah, it's confuse—it's confusing to me uh, it's as if something was erased. Uh, it wouldn't be pleasant to remember but, I think uh, I've lived through a lot of miserable time. Uh, the total picture would be uh, at least it would fall into place. It, it wouldn't mean anything, it would just, it just—I feel that uh, it's a confusion in my head.
You experienced a lot as a young...
Yeah.
...tender-aged child.
Well, look where I was when teenagers go out and date or when they do things. I didn't have no youth. I lost that. But I know where I was, but the things that, uh. But I don't know whether it's normal to be like a two people. You understand what I'm saying? Whether it's a normal thing for me to experience now, that the person then—she's me but she's somebody else. And this is you. Well, the two of you are being hurt by the same thing. Uh, is it crazy?
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