How I Got This Way- Part Two

    I was brought home to the Crooked Little House and my brothers. I have no real memories as a small toddler, except Mom mentioned that I fell out of my high chair on two separate occasions, splitting my lip both times. There are photos of me tagging along with my brothers, wearing boys hand me downs, because that was all we had. I thought I was a boy until I started school. The Crooked Little House was bursting at the seams, with a family of six and a mini-zoo. A 'friend' of my dad's kept dropping off cats on our property, the kitties ripping up our old furniture and curtains. I don't know how Mom coped, but my maternal grandmother would babysit a lot, although my brothers got on her nerves, along with the condition of the house. Grandma was critical of my father, and there was some kind of disagreement, so I didn't see Grandma for a while. We didn't have a phone, so when Mom wanted to speak to Grandma or my aunt, she would have to use the phone booth blocks away at the party store. I think Dad,in his selfishness, would have been happy if Mom never worked, drove a car, or had friends and family. My brothers and I were enough aggravation for him. I tried to be good, but he yelled at me, too, for a lot of things. I spent my early childhood being at the memory of my father's moods. My paternal grandmother was an alcoholic, and between her evictions, car accidents, and getting arrested, my father was irritable and stressed out. He went for two years without a job, unemployed when I was born. Previously, he had worked for twelve years for the Road Commission and fourteen years at his next job until his death. He worked hard, and to relax, he would drink, as did Mom for a while. Drinking helped her relax, but it made Dad obnoxious. I was taught at a young age that men were assholes, but I still adored my brothers right up until I turned six or seven years old. However, my best friend was my mom. I have never regretted that closeness, although I wondered, as I got older, who was the mother and who was the child.
    We didn't have a lot of kids in the neighborhood, except the boys my brothers knew. They always seemed to know a group of boys in the immediate area, who they played and fought with. They once got in trouble for breaking into a neighbor's house and stealing some of her things. My third brother said that all he took(he was around eight years old at the time of the break in) was some popsicles from the freezer. Those were minor misadventures compared to what happened later with my oldest brother.
    Until I started school, most of my days blurred together. I remember Mom being with the Columbia Record and Tape Club, and country music would fill the Crooked Little House from her old stereo. Charlie Rich-Behind Closed Doors. That song got played a lot. Our neighbors Gene and Sue became a fixture, as did Bob and Hazel, who lived in a bigger house next to Gene and Sue. Sue was a nurse who worked at General, which I guess was a real swinging place, because it was rumored that Sue and the other young nurses would have sex in the closets with the interns. :)