A Sense of Doom

This next selection comes from Frank Capra's autobiography. The book is a fascinating read. A born storyteller, it's no wonder that the man made some classic movies.

Here he is recounting his early years (before getting into the movie-making business). His immigrant family had a hard life trying to survive in their new country. But finally, things were looking up...

On sun drenched February morning in 1917, Papa walked through his fifteen-acre lemon grove on the high, frost-free foothills above Sierra Madre, surveying his beautiful trees dripping with large yellowing fruit. A $5,000 crop, Papa estimated, more than enough to make the last mortgage payment due in two weeks. Tomorrow he would gather up pickers in Monrovia to harvest the bountiful yield. God smiled on him.

The first three years he had worked the grove alone, from dawn to sundown: pruning, watering, hauling manure from the Valley, discing behind his horse--and hoeing until he couldn't straighten up. But two years ago he had ordered Mama and Ann to quit work and live with him as the ranch--a happy day. No more would they ever have to slave, he promised. I'm sure that Papa must have counted his blessings that beautiful early spring day...

It's at this point that you begin to think that things are too perfect. What is going to spoil this picture?! You can just feel the shadow making its way towards the valley...

About an hour after breakfast, my seventeen-year-old sister Ann, the youngest and most beloved of the family, heard a strange and fearful whirring noise in the grove. She called Papa. No answer. Investigating, she traced the whir to the well-pump house. She looked inside--and froze in horror. Papa was dead, his chest crushed and edged between the teeth of two large gears. the long, black left, from the racing motor to the pump, was chewed up and wrapped crazily around his body...

Papa's dream of moving his family out of the ghetto and onto his beloved farm was shattered...

Taken from:
Capra, Frank. The Name Above the Title (1971), pp. 8-9.

How did I rate this book? Good