Life kept on rolling along. We lived the best we could I guess. My father was working at least! He worked for a company in Utica that moved houses. They actually uplifted homes and took them down the road to a new location. My parents had their usual fights every time my father stayed out and got drunk. Then we'd lie in our beds and listen to it all. Sometimes it could get real violent. My mother threw things at him at times. I remember when I came down in the morning one time, there was this brown stuff all over the living room wall. Turned out to be gravy that had been on the stove in a frying pan. I think my mother threw that at my father. Lots of times my mom would have bruises all over her from the night before. I never could understand why they stayed together. Us kids were afraid of our father. He was too mean and he'd use the belt on us when he wanted to. He had one of those belts that were cut into strips. Boy, that hurt. But he didn't always use a belt. Sometimes he'd use anything that was handy, like a broom stick or something. My brother, Steve, seemed to get hit the most. Steve was more of a hyper kid and would seem to get in trouble for the least little thing.
I graduated from sixth grade and was in Junior High now. When you are in seventh grade you are the low man on the totem pole in high school. I enjoyed school. It was better than being at home sometimes and with me being the oldest, I always had to help with all the smaller kids.
I had Charlie Lang for my Home Room teacher. He was a handsome man but not a good man because he always fooled around with the girls in the higher grades. It was a well known fact. he taught math. My favorite subject all through high school. That and English.
I could see my cousins now and then too, so that was nice. We could leave at lunch time and we'd walk downtown to the local soda shop and hang around or we'd stay in school and eat at the cafeteria.
My mom and us older kids would go to The Methodist Church on Sundays. We had done that when we lived in town too. I started in that church when I was in third grade. It was a very nice church and I liked being in Sunday School. I got a bible with my name engraved when I was in third grade. I always have cherished that bible. Reverend VanOrnum and his wife lived right there on church property in a nice house. That guy was so nice to everyone. They built a gym onto the side of the church and we'd go there one night a week and play basketball. That was fun! I don't ever recall my father going except for when he and Debby got baptized.
The church would have outings now and then and I'd always go. One time the church group was going for a seven mile hike through the Ilion Gorge. At the end of the seven miles there was a farm that we stopped at and that's where we ate out lunch. I always remember that day because I got a puppy!
On the way back through the gorge, there was this old barn that was quite near to the road. We saw a German Shepard just inside and the farmer was in there also. He let us come inside to see the puppies. Then he said if any one of us wanted one, we could take it right then and there! I loved puppies! So of course I took one an so did the girl that lived next door to me. I was thrilled and when I got home. My mother and father said I could keep it as long as I paid for the food etc. Which I did with my babysitting money.
I loved that dog! I named him Tippy. The girl next door had to give her puppy back. Her parents would not let her keep it. I felt sorry for her.
Tippy grew fast and he was a good looking dog. but my father had a bad habit of kicking him sometimes if he barked too much. I had him tied right outside on the clothes line. I hated my father when he was mean to my dog. I was so scared he'd kill him some night when he came home drunk. We had already seen my father take a mother cat and all her kittens and put them into a burlap bag and walk over the tracks and throw it in the canal. So he was capable of killing animals. The funny thing that happened with the cat though, is the mother cat came back home. She had gotten out of that bag somehow and swam to shore. The babies died though of course. My father let that cat stay after that and said it was an omen and he couldn't hurt it any more.
But that didn't stop him from kicking Tippy now and then.
One day when my father was out drinking, the neighbors next door had company. They came over to look at Tippy and then they asked me if they could buy him. Tippy was about 6 months old. I didn't want to part with him but every time I thought about my father hurting him, I thought he'd be much safer and happier with these people. So I sold him for seven dollars. That covered the license cost that I paid. This couple lived in Utica, about 15 miles away. I cried when they took him but I was glad that he'd have a much better home. Those people promised me that he'd have the best of care and food.
When my father came home around three in the morning, he must have walked out back and saw that Tippy was missing. He must have asked my mother where the dog was because all of a sudden he came storming into my bedroom, waking me up, and demanding to know where "his" dog was. So now it was "his" dog. He was a raving maniac that night. he got my mother and me out of bed and marched us out of the house and over next door to the neighbor's and banged on their door. When they opened it, he was yelling at them to tell him where the dog was. They told him it was gone to a friend's and would have a good home. Boy, was he pissed. He marched us back into our house and threw me around and hit me and my mother before he let me go back to my room. What a bastard he was. I never forgot that day and never will till the day I die. He never said another word to me about the dog after that. When he sobered up he must have thought about it. He knew it was my dog and that I was taking care of it's needs, and not him.
About six months later those people came down to visit next door and they brought Tippy with them so I could see him. I could not believe how beautiful he had grown! And he looked so healthy and shiny. I was so happy for him. He seemed happy to see me too, wagging his tail and licking my hand. I think he was saying thank you.
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