Amy Goldmacher

Receipts

1. Date

a) Your father just turned twenty
b) Your father was forty-seven and would die in less than four months

2. Item

a) A PC 6 from Polytronics Labs (a Poly-Comm 6 Transceiver for the 6-meter ham radio band)

i) What got him interested in this?
ii) Was he not able to communicate with his family of origin, from whom he later estranged himself?
iii) Is that why he started using this machine – to find connection?
iv) What happened to it? Did he keep it and use it in his den, the one you recall filled with equipment, or did he trade it in for newer, better models over time?

b) A men’s 18” Specialized Crossroad Mountain Bike, Red

i) Was he hopeful that he would have days where he wasn’t feeling like death from chemo and radiation? That he would have enough strength to ride?
ii) Did he go with a friend, or was he figuring that this, like death, he would have to face alone?
iii) How many rides could he possibly have gotten in between when he bought it in April and when he was completely bedridden, paralyzed, blind in one eye, on morphine for the pain, in July?
iv) Did he think—hope—he would live long enough to bring it in for the free service before the offer expired? Or did he wonder which would expire first, him or the offer?
v) What happened to the bike after he died? Was it given away to a friend who would appreciate it, or was it taken back to the store in hopes that some value could be regained from it?

3. Cost

a) In 1966, $200 is about $1650 in today’s dollars

i) Was that a lot of money for a young man to spend on a hobby?
ii) Was it birthday money, or hard-earned salary from his summer job as a 4-H camp counselor?
iii) Did he save up for it, exercising the discipline he later expected of you?

b) In 1994, $300 is about $550 in today’s dollars

i) What did he trade in to get the discount off the cost of the bicycle?
ii) Was that the price of hope?

Amy Goldmacher (she/her) (Twitter: @solidgoldmacher, Instagram: @solidgoldmacher) is an anthropologist, a writer, and a book coach, which means her career has centered around transforming information for good. She has published on topics of anthropological work and careers; the most recent is the second edition of Designing An Anthropology Career: Professional Development Exercises from Rowman & Littlefield. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology with Honors from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Currently, she is working on a memoir in the form of a glossary. She is the editor of Passed On: Daughters Write About Father Loss, Lack, and Legacy, forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press in 2023. She will never not have ice cream.