Translations:Chapter One Trey/52/zh-cn

When my dad talked about his childhood, he always seemed wistful about his father. He described him as a workaholic who left little time for much else in his life. He owned a furniture store, passed down from my great-grandfather, that had survived the Great Depression, but just barely. Constant anxiety about the family finances made my grandfather a hostage to the business. Behind the little blue house was an alley that in an earlier time my grandfather would pass through on his way home from work so that he could pick up bits of coal dropped by delivery trucks. My father said his dad never went to movies or took his son to baseball games; he saw such things as distractions that robbed time from the store. He always seemed to be running scared, my father said.

每当我爸谈起自己的童年时，总是对他父亲充满怀念。他说他父亲是工作狂，几乎没有把时间留给其他事。我祖父经营一间家具店，是我曾祖父传承下来的，勉强熬过了经济大萧条。我祖父一直很忧虑家里的财务状况，成了被生意绑架的人质。在蓝色小屋后方有一条巷子，早年我祖父下班返家经过那条巷子时，会沿路捡送货卡车掉落的煤块。我父亲说，他爸爸没有看过电影，也从不带儿子去看棒球赛：他认为那些事情会让他分心，占用他经营家具店的时间。父亲说，他爸爸总是生活在恐惧与担忧之中。