Mr. Sajben

Biography

Timeline

1. After years of attic storage

   Diana’s discarded violin finds another player

   Mom discarded the warped violin. Mr. Sajben retrieved and repaired it; his unnamed son learned on it and played it for years. The Sajbens had moved before Margie told the narrator.

   Dee's Chapter

2. Winter, when Chris was about five years old

   Chris accidentally locks Carol outside in winter

   While living with Mom, Carol stepped outside barefoot in a thin housecoat to shake a rug. Chris accidentally locked the door. Mr. Sajben helped her back inside using the skeleton key to his own house.

   Carol's Chapter

Stories mentioning Mr.

• The First Television and the Music That StayedThe parents returned from Diana’s 1949 leg operation in Chicago with the family’s first black-and-white television. Dee contrasts television with the radio programs that had fed her imagination. Bernie bought a record player after starting window-display work, and Dee repeatedly played Patty Page’s The Tennessee Waltz. Bob and Sue danced, Barb and Margie adored Pat Boone, and Barbie and Diana played instruments. Years later, Diana’s warped violin was discarded, rescued by Mr. Sajben, repaired, and played by his son; Dee regretted being unable to recover it.
• Open Doors and a Winter Skeleton-Key RescueCarol recalls leaving doors unlocked in the early years, opening the front door for summer breezes, and hanging flypaper to catch the flies that entered. Later, the family used a skeleton key. One snowy winter morning, while Mom was visiting Diana in Florida, Carol stepped outside barefoot in a thin housecoat to shake a rug. Chris, whom Carol estimates was about five, slammed the door and accidentally locked it. Unable to get back inside, Carol sought help at the Sajbens. Mr. Sajben opened her door with his own skeleton key and joked that it would probably open every door on the street.

Referenced in

• Dee's Chapter — SICK DAYS
• Carol's Chapter — WALK RIGHT IN