Lana focused on her grammar, learning all she could about the origin and the construction of the English language. Later in life, Lana was heard to remark occasionally “I never could get serious about a man whose subjects and verbs did not agree.” She would often mimic others, right to their face, replaying a sentence or phrase. “Ain’t no good no how,” she once replied to Cliff Frazier mockingly in the late afternoon three o’clock recess courtyard after he complained about the “very bad food” served at lunch.
During the summer after her sophomore year, at the age of fifteen, Lana, again at the encouragement of Meme, applied for and landed, a part-time position at Marshall Field’s on Michigan Avenue. When all was considered, both before and after this point, this was “the crossroads.” Yo
