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In 1954, when I was nine years old, my mother was our family’s sole “breadwinner.” She was employed at Growers, a local grocery store, and worked in the meat-wrapping department.

On Saturdays, when my mother was a work, my brother and I would visit her at the store to ask for 50 cents so we could go to the Saturday matinee at the Palace movie theater.

In the classic 1957 science fiction movie 'The Incredible Shrinking Man,' the lead character is exposed to radiation and insecticide and begins to shrink. When he discovers himself to be a mere six inches tall, he takes refuge in a dollhouse until the family’s cat becomes curious about who has taken up residence in the dollhouse. Escaping to the basement, he becomes the prey of a spider.