Dowtown story

Manal B. Tarabay
(b. 1983, Souq El Gharb, Lebanon)

I was born on December 14, 1983, in my mother’s car, on her way to the hospital. I was born on the day the USS New Jersey fired its 16-inch guns on our village. My mother tells me that I was propelled out of her womb by the vibrations of the battleship’s shelling landing and exploding around us.

Sixteen years later, my first car was my mother’s hand-me-down, site-of-my-birth, VW Beetle. It was only then that she offhandedly mentioned to me that the New Jersey’s gigantic explosive projectiles were described by the Americans and the Lebanese as “flying Volkswagens.”

Three years later, and again out of the blue, my mother told me that the “B” in my middle name is not a reference to my father’s name, Bilal, but “B” for Brooke, as in Brooke Shields, her favorite American actress in 1983.

Nine years later I stumbled upon the fact of Brooke Shields’ visit to the USS New Jersey off the coast of Lebanon during the week of my birth. And remarkably (and maybe even expectedly), that Brooke Shields recently became VW’s spokesperson advertising a car named Boom.

But these coincidental anchors have not steadied my ship. I continue to obsess over the USS New Jersey and its 16-inch shells, Brooke Shields, and VW beetles. I can’t seem to get them out of my mind, or body.