[FleetsidePaul]

People did have it rough back then. I know my dad did. His dad died when he was 9 years old and my grandmother had to work full time as a nurse to feed 4 kids. He was pretty much raised by his oldest sister and she wasn't a nice person. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her raising 3 younger siblings when she was just a teenager. But she was a mean old bag even when I was a kid. She still said mean things to my dad and my other aunt. My uncle had died long before I was born. I don't know what happened to him. Nobody talked about it. Nobody talked about anything.
I do know that my aunt left my dad on the side of the road when he was maybe 11 years old and said that they couldn't afford him anymore.
The police had to bring him back when they found him wandering around lost.

My other aunt was a sweetheart. But very withdrawn. She would barely speak and wouldn't be photographed. I think a lot went down when they were kids. And they didn't want to talk about it.

I remember as a teenager, stumbling into the house in the wee hours of the morning. Higher than a kite and my dad would be waiting up for me. He would always say the same thing. "I'm just glad that you made it home'. And he would go to bed. He understood something that I didn't at the time. He knew the feeling. That I was running away from a reality that I didn't like.