I did not like my father returning. Our life was going along smoothly and now it would be disrupted again with fighting and beatings. It was his drinking that caused it all. He was working at the Drop Forge. I think that was the name of the factory. It was down on Clark Place or the street next to it. He could walk there easily. We never had a car in all the years I was growing up.
I couldn't believe my mother went on a trip to New York City with my Aunt Dorothy during that time. My father never liked my mother's sister. But he let her go. I recall my father taking all of us kids to Frankfort to some farm, so that this woman could babysit us all while he went out. This woman had a few kids of her own. Her name was Gloria. I think we went by cab. I can't remember what went on after we returned home and my mother came back from the city. I'm sure there was a fight.
I'm surprised the Ferguson's let us stay there after dad came back. They had about 5 kids of their own at that time. Diane was the oldest and in my class at school. She was real smart but used to have temper tantrums or something. I recall her throwing a pencil at the teacher. When I turned ten years old, Diane's mother had a birthday party and sleepover for me downstairs. That was a fun night. It was really nice of her to do that for me.
Don Ferguson, the father, was a strange bird at times too. He had this room that was just his and it was full of posters of the "Genny Girl". We used to sneak in there when he was gone and look at all that stuff. He had dirty books in there and we'd laugh about them. I recall Mr. Ferguson running to the TV when the Genny Girl was on..Ha! Ha! He was obsessed!!
My brother, Ricky, was born in April of 1957. He used to cry a lot and one night my father came home drunk and he didn't like the baby crying. He and my mother were arguing and fighting again. No wonder Ricky was crying! My father went to the crib and picked that baby up in the air and actually threw him back down on the mattress real hard. The people downstairs called the cops that night. They knocked on the door. My father answered it and somehow talked his way out of everything and they went away. I was so hoping that they'd take him away again but it didn't happen. So life went on as usual. Quiet when dad wasn't drinking and hell when he was. He had a bad habit of throwing us kids around too. He beat me up one time because I punched my sister, Jeanne, in the stomach and she fainted. I was crying as he was hitting me and saying, " I faint all the time and no one ever cares!" "Jeanne faints once and I get beat up for it!" It didn't stop him. He kept hitting me with the belt. He had a belt that was cut into strips, to hit us kids with.
I used to faint a lot when I was young. I might have had low blood sugar but didn't know it . I fainted every time I was in study hall it seemed, or in a room that had a lot of people in it. Panic attacks maybe? Ha! I'd get taken to the nurse's station and they'd stick that smelling salts under my nose. After resting for a few minutes I'd go back to my class room. It was embarrassing all through my school years. That and having my corset's steel bands sticking out from my blouse were my most embarrassing things in school. I did stop using my crutches by the time I was out of third grade though. But had to keep wearing that old corset. And it was getting old and tattered too.
I had Mrs. Hick's in fifth grade but when I was supposed to go on to sixth grade I got the bad news that I would be held back to repeat fifth grade. I was so mad about that. And sad because my class mates were going ahead of me. I repeated the grade and had a man named Mr. Davis .
It was my best time in my life I think, living in that area. We had the swimming pool down the street and we'd walk downtown to church or the library. We'd play in back of the Backman's house, which connected to the houses on Barringer Road. Dick Green lived on Barringer and he was always out there too. Ronnie Decker lived on the corner and we'd go down to his house sometimes. My sister, Chris, was his age. He had an older sister, Barb. The mother was a very thin woman. I think their father had died because there was never a man around. The Bluett's lived next door in the cellar of the house they were building. The neighborhood behind us was starting to be built up with all new homes at that time. I remember we used to sell Lemonade to the workers back there. Lucy White lived down around the corner. She had an Antique Shop right in her house. She had a daughter who was a couple years older than I. I can recall going there but can't remember her name. The Nawacki's lived in a nice home and they had a swimming pool. We never went there but used to peek over the fence. They had a daughter, Nancy, who was older and a son, Steve, who was a year younger than me I think. I could go on and on about the neighbors. It was just a very nice place to grow up .
An elderly couple lived next door in trailer. They had a daughter but I don't think she lived there. It might have been their granddaughter. She was older than all of us. We caught her having sex with a guy under the boat out back. Ha! That was funny to us. Then there was another older lady that lived alone across the street. We used to shovel her driveway in the winter and she'd give us a dollar! That was a lot in those days! Us kids would argue over who was going to shovel though..Ha! ha!
My cousins would come and visit now and then and stay overnight. I and my sister, Jeanne would go to our cousin's house now and then to stay over. My Aunt Mary had a lot of kids too and we would trade . One of them would come stay at our house and one of us would go to theirs.
My cousin, Gloria, was my age and her sister, Barbie, was Christine's age. I'd always have a blast when I stayed over at their house. They lived on a hill and we'd play "Kick-The-can" out there in the road. They had a player piano too that we loved to play. There were two older boys in that family. Larry and Jack. And younger kids too. I'd say they were our closest cousins. Maybe it was because my mother lived with their mother, Mary, when she was thirteen years old, after my Grandmother died. My mother and Mary both graduated in 1941 from Ilion High School and ended up marrying brothers.
Anyway, I got through the fourth grade again and moved on to fifth. Had a man for a teacher then. His name was Mr. Davis. My original class mates were in sixth grade by now.
I got through that grade okay. Then in the summer we had to move from Montgomery Street. The Ferguson family was enlarging and they needed the room. And there were seven children in our family now. That apartment just wasn't big enough for us all. And little Ricky was growing fast.
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