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Mary Berelson
a book bubble about
Bicentennial Summer
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
A Toilet Float, a Trumpet, & a Father’s Love
This scene says so much about my dad—and why I adored him. He was deeply patriotic, yes, but also quirky, creative, and not above using a toilet part to finish a project. That early morning flag-raising ritual was our sacred time, and even a painted ballcock on top of a 25-foot pole felt noble when I was playing “Reveille” at dawn. Writing this chapter helped me remember not just what we did, but how much I loved doing it—with him.
Book Excerpt
Bicentennial Summer
A big family secret was that our formal flagpole was topped with a makeshift finial. Instead of having a genuine finial, with a bald eagle clasping a sphere in its sharp talons or simply an inexpensive golden sphere itself, Dad had crowned our flagpole with a toilet float.
Toilet floats, sometimes called ballcocks—a word that made me and my big brother, Skippy, snicker like Buster and Rascal—are those spherical devices that float on the surface of the water in a toilet tank to let the flapper know what to do when you flush. Dad had bought a ballcock for seventy-five cents and let the twins paint it to match the pole. From afar, it looked just right—the straight pole; the red, white, and blue waving in the breeze; and the silvery-white round finial, all with a blue-sky backdrop—but from up close, and if you knew what you were looking for, you could make out the grooves on the painted ballcock and be reminded that it really belonged in a toilet.
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