I’m pretty sure the folks I’ll refer to here are long gone, by now as I myself, am 72 yrs old now. If they’re still alive, I hope they have an extra strong magnifying glass to read this by. I was born and raised in 1939 in Danville, Illinois along with my 2 brothers – one 5 yrs younger and one 3 yrs older. My Mother had to raise us all by herself as she and my Dad were divorced when I was very young. He remarried and lived in Chicago where he drove an over-the-road semi truck. Sometimes, when school was out for the summer, he would come get me (never the boys, just me) and take me to Chicago for the summer. I hated going with him as he and his wife were real bad alcoholics and they’d stop at every bar they passed on the way!! I can’t count the times I sat on a bar stool for hours on end drinking 7Up or tomato juice while they drank. I still remember the name of Dad’s drink; Jim Beam and seltzer. His wife, was a real weirdo (not to insult the weirdos). I remember when I was only 10 yrs old, she actually bought me a pair of “falsies” which I thought at the time, was pretty cool. She would give me beer to drink when my Dad was gone on a trip.

I remember one time while my dad was sleeping she showed me his “privates” and wanted me to touch them. Well, when I went back home, I told my Mother the stuff she did and remember my mother yelling at him over the phone and telling him he’d never see me again. That suited me just fine. I never wanted to go back again. I’m not sure he was even asleep when that stuff was going on.

My Mother never in her life owned a car or knew how to drive so she took the city bus every day to and from work in a sewing factory. She lived her whole entire life for just us kids. She never dated or went out anywhere. She just stayed home with us kids when she wasn’t working. Bless her heart. She suffered with migraine headaches her whole life. I remember her getting sick all though the night vomiting but she never missed a day’s work, never. I swear I don’t know how she did it but she did.
~to be continued~