1960 Something

People in general are moody. Everyone has good days and bad days. The days for Mama were not all that great I am sure. Just being around someone drinking is enough to make a good natured person have a few fits. Women tend to have them. When Aunt Faye ran her new Continential Lincoln into Uncle Andy's car it was just a funny story that was told over the years. Mama was marked crazy from the beginning. Crazy for stress that would bring the most sane person to a breaking point.

I listened to her when the men that drank with Daddy were getting on her nerves. This made me want to do something to help her. I even chased one bum out of one of Daddy's abandoned cars in the yard. This guy slept there often. Daddy I am sure had given him permission. Mama could not stand the thoughts of him letting just anyone stay with us. It was bad enough that every stray from Alabama bringing the whiskey and keeping Daddy from going to work everyday. The times he spent drinking did gradually cause him to loose his very good job.

Loosing it is something that she was bound to do and do often. It did eventually come to a complete breakdown. The doctors at ECM's 400 ward seemed to think she needed mental health treatment. The day she went she had been whipped with a garden hose. It was in the hottest part of the summer. She had been picked on all morning by Daddy, Grandmother and Uncle Keith, because she was not picking up enough of the potatoes that had been dug that morning.