To Garner Wisdom

 I was only two when JFK was assassinated. It may be hard to believe, but I do remember seeing it on television.  I remember walking in front of the television seeing the footage of the car.The living room and television are still a dim memory to me. The state of the room is also etched somewhat in my mind. At that time Daddy was still working at the Steel Mill in Plymouth Michigan. For the day that was a good job. My grandmother talked often about what a good job he once had. He was a foreman according to her. At that time the household income must have made it easier for him to keep things around the house on Morley fixed. In later years it seemed to become cluttered outside with junk cars. There was a pile of wood that my grandmother complained about each time she came on her mission to help her son’s family.The junk cars housed bums that Daddy would let sleep in them many nights. This made my mama so mad. I always wanted to help, and one morning I attempted to chase one of them away with a broom. He left. I know now that a grown man was not afraid of a little skinny girl. He was not going to run because of me. It may be part of my imagination that I ran him off. My mama always told that I did. I was seven when we left there. Is it possible that a child younger than seven could scare a vagabond out of a parked car, he was sleeping I was beating on the car with a broom. Yes, it is possible if he did not know what was going on, for him to get up and run. He ran down the street which seemed like miles and miles to me.
As a small child the back yard seemed big to me; it really wasn’t. As many people do get ideas of adding on or building something he had done this; the pile of wood was proof of him having some goals for us, there. My daddy is not the only man I have seen this in and it may not be a real bad thing. The whole picture of how we ended up with Grandmother till we were grown is a good thing really. After we got here I never ever wanted to leave. I didn’t want Daddy to get us a place of our own. I knew I was better off with Grandmother.
Grandmother came to visit on a mission, because she knew her son’s family needed help. He was off up there with two kids and a wife. The wife she sure was the cause for it all. It was her messiness of the house and why her son drank so much. “A woman can throw as much out the back door with a spoon as a man can shovel in at the front door, you know.”---one of the things she said often.
The back yard as small as it really was holds a great memory of Daddy; he really was deep down a humble man. Kites were one thing he loved. It seems we did this often in my mind, but really I think I have made the onetime be many more times. Mama and my little brother were in the yard that day. We had a swing set in the corner of the yard. Mama was pushing Kenny in the swing. In the field behind our lot Daddy and I were flying the kite. He had gotten it so high that it was nearly out of sight. Even then it was not high enough for him. We went to the store and bought more string so it would go even higher. Weather we ever reeled it back in I don’t remember. I just know that he was as much a kid that day as I was. When he made the effort to be my daddy he made me feel like a very special little girl.
The things we did then were typical and normal. When it changed or if it changed much I don’t know for sure. There was always a time that someone he was drinking some. It just got worst as time went on. The visitors we had from down here did not help him much. The time was when many men were going up north to work. Some of them that came to our house pretended they were looking for jobs. This is what they told their parents or wives when they wanted to get away for a while. It turned into a holiday instead of finding work. That is how my daddy ended up there. He met my mama there. She was not even from up north. Her dad came to the north to work at Ford. They were from West Virginia. More hillbillies than Daddy even. Still she was labeled a Yankee.
My mama was terribly depressed after my little brother was born. I have come to this conclusion based on the reason there are no baby pictures of him to be found. The youngest picture that I know of is his first grade picture after we left Wayne, Michigan.
When he was still in diapers Mama and Grandpa took us to the Detroit zoo. Mama had a terrible time with him, because he had a stomach virus of sorts. The day must have been something she had thought would make her feel more like a together mother. Grandpa and Grandma insisted that morning that my brother would be fine. I know they must have wanted Mama to be a good mother to us. Her mother was somewhat like mama. She however, had Grandpa to take care of her. Daddy was not as a giving man. He did not pay attention or realize that he could have helped her. It takes one really strong person to make up for what two working together can’t accomplish.
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There were times that Daddy flew in and wanted Mama to take more interest in taking care of the house and us. On picture day he wanted me to have a decent dress to wear. The dress was pink silky material with a round collar and black velvet bow tied in the middle of the collar. He came home from work one day determined to make her iron my dress so that I would look good in my school picture the next day. As always I was right in the middle of the events of the day. Daddy got Mama to heat the iron for the pressing of the dress. I followed in as she thought that the iron was ready to start. How it happened was somewhere between a fight and an accident. He was forever trying to make her do things the right way. She was forever trying to just do things. In the line of fire the ironing board fell and the iron hit my arm. My arm had the print of the iron on it. The burn was bad enough that she took me to the doctor. Going to the doctor at one time was something she did all the time. She took us too, much Daddy said. By this time we weren’t taken very much, because of the cost. Went went to the doctor often at one point. I think as we became poor the doctor visits stopped. Mama was the type that would take us to the doctor for very minor things. She was not worried about what anything cost at one point. Her dad had worked for Ford and Daddy's job was good until he lost it. There are really times that I think we could of had a good childhood even up north. For someone as good as I know Daddy really was. He was a good humble man, because my grandmother said so.