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Chapters 1-2: Excess Baggage, Cutting Loose

• Chapters 1-2: Excess Baggage, Cutting Loose

• In Chapter 1, the reader is introduced to the emotionally bankrupt and disruptive childhood of Anita O'Day.

• Anita's mother, Gladys got pregnant by James Colton in early 1919.

• After the couple wed, they moved to Chicago, where Anita was born.
• James was a gambler, drinker and womanizer who neglected his family.

• Gladys eventually divorced James and they had a temporary fling that ended with the same results of break up.

• Gladys was not a demonstrative person while Anita was growing up, but Anita felt as though she was excess baggage to her dour and unhappy mother.
• Anita found pleasure in her adolescence in music and her summer's spent in Kansas City.

• Anita would stay with her maternal grandparents in Kansas City and would often go to church and sing there.

• Anita entered a dance contest and won.

• Anita...

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