We did manage to stay together till December of that year. Then the day after Christmas our 'Uncle" Ben came over to visit. We called him Uncle Ben, even though he wasn't really our uncle. He was my father's best friend and his best man at their wedding. He lived far away. Always worked on some government project. I remember he worked on the Panama Canal area for a while. Other than that I don't know much about where he worked. He was the one that was running around with that woman in Frankfort that I babysat for a few years earlier.
So when he came to visit, he said he wanted to take Pam over to his sister's house with him. My father was going also. They left with Pam and we didn't see her again. When my father came home he told us that Pam was going to live with the Zuis's in Herkimer. And that she'd have a nice home.
We were all so pissed about that! She had just gotten new toys and clothes for Christmas and those people didn't want one thing! That made me mad. And we couldn't go see her except for one time. The Zuis's let all of us come visit her. She had nice new clothes and looked happy. Pam was such a cute little girl. We missed her terrible but knew that it was for the best. She had a nice home now. And it was warm! The family didn't want us visiting after that one time because they wanted Pam to forget where she came from.
The poor little kids always looked like little rag-a-muffins anyway and they froze in their beds at night. At least Pam never had to worry about that again. We heard that the doctor told the Zuis's that Pam had frostbite. Because she always turned so blue when she got a little chilled.
Dad found himself a girlfriend during this time too. Her name was Janet. We hated her. He'd bring her and her three kids over and make us babysit . We didn't need her kids in the house too. There were enough there. Then she and my father would go out all the time and get drunk. He had met her in a bar of course. It wasn't really her kid's fault that they had a drunk for a mother and we had a drunk for a father. A couple times I even went to her house to babysit only because she paid me. She was living in Mohawk with an old man at that time.
Dad was always out drinking after our mom died. We never had much food in the house and life was real bad.
Sometimes while dad was out drinking, I'd sneak out too. Vivian, from next door, and I, would walk up street and wander around. Sometimes we'd take the bus to Frankfort and go to this little place where kids hung out. We always thought those Italian boys were cute. One night she and I dared to go into a bar up there. Some boys talked us into it. We sat in the back room so no one would see us. We were seventeen at that time. The guys bought us a drink. I remember it was a vodka and orange. We only had that one and then we left. We were too scared to be in there. So we started walking home and who should come along? My father! He had his brother's car. He stopped and asked us where the hell we thought we were going and wanted to know where we'd been. We didn't dare lie so we told him. He drove us right back to that bar and made us go inside and told the bar tender to get a good look at us so we'd never get served again. Yikes! I was afraid he was going to beat me when I got home but he never did. Amazing.
Vivian and I would sneak out a lot. My father was never home anyway. And Jeanne and Chris would watch the kids.
One time we almost got caught again. I had to go to the bathroom so we decided to go into the Ilion Bowling Center. Vivian went into the bar area to talk to some friends but I stayed in the Girl's room. We left and as we walked out the door, there was my father walking down the street towards us! We ran back inside and hid in the bathroom till the coast was clear. And you might know he had to sit next to the window where he could see out into the alleys and also in line of view of the bathrooms! We had to wait quite a while before he turned his head. Then we high-tailed it out that door fast and home. That was a close one! Ha! Ha!
The next one to leave was the baby. This woman, Esther, that dad had known from the bars years ago and who's mother was a good friend of our Aunt Ruth's, wanted Bernie. She was married to Joe Terenzetti at that time so my father thought it would be okay for them to adopt him. These people lived way down in Middletown, NY. But they drove all the way and took Bernie at the end of December. My Aunt Ruth was so mad about that. She didn't care for the type of person Esther was, or had been, and didn't think she'd make a good mother. But there was nothing Aunt Ruth could do. My father was just giving the kids away. Sounded terrible at that time. We didn't get to see the baby very often. One time we did when Esther came to visit up at Aunt Ruth's, so us kids could come there and see him. My father never saw him though. He didn't want to. Which was a good thing. We found out that if the Terenzetti's hadn't taken Bernie when they did, he would have died from Pneumonia. He had it when he left our house. We never knew it though. No wonder. The way my father made us take him from a warm room to upstairs in our freezing rooms at night. So it was the best that he had gone when he did, or there wouldn't be any "Mike" now. His name was changed after the adoption.
Eventually the other kids went into foster homes. Two of them got adopted together soon after they went into the homes. My mother's cousin wanted them, so Ricky and Carol went to Oneida to live. Little Debby never did get adopted. She ended up in a foster home on a farm with my two brothers, Steve and Jim. We found out later on that she was being molested by the foster father. My Aunt Ruth tried to get her out of there but it never happened. She left when she turned sixteen. I even tried to get her because I ended up getting married in April of 1964. I thought that I could get some of those kids if I was married. But it never happened. The Social Service people thought I was too young. Assholes! But in the end, that was for the best also. That is all I am going to write about. This is the end of my childhood years..
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