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| Joe George, I can
barely remember the little shack we lived in Eden, IL. Mom could
only be only about 17 or 18 when we lived in Eden, Illinois with her
parents. Obviously she had to take some criticisms concerning child
rearing. We had dogs, chickens and a horse on this little plot of land. I
remember Joe George, I think he was mom's boyfriend, would put
me on the horse and parade me around the yard. One cold winter day we (Joe
and I) stayed outside too long that my feet got so cold I cried. He took
me inside a sat me close to the old Ben Franklin pot-belly stove to warm
my feet. Well after a few minutes with me just sitting there with my feet
propped up to the stove, my shoe soles begin to boil. My feet were already
in pain from the changing temperature but now I'm into some really
different pain. Somehow they took care of everything. Incidentally while
sitting by same stove on day I was trying to eat corn on the cob and
really having a rough time of it. Mom gave me a kitchen knife to strip the
corn and grandpa went berserk. After the ensuing argument I think we moved
to Sparta. Marvin, Elroy: Elroy was the younger, he was far from my age, but always seemed so cool, collected and in charge. I remember reporting once that Marvin was the devil cause he had a tail, I think it was his penis. |
| There was a couple of families in Coulterville, IL that mom would visit. I recall one of the women only had one arm but she had two great little children that kept me company. We ran and played day after day, and all day. On one visit there was only one of them. Mom told me that one hanged himself on the clothes line while running through the yard as we always did. I remember that clothes lines used to hang very low until you propped them up with a big stick. I cried and although the other kid and I still had each other, it never was the same after that. |
| I remember a few
things from Southern Illinois between the ages of 1 and 5. While on a
stroll with Mom, I remember crying one afternoon because I couldn't keep
up. She knew that she was just a few inches out of reach. Mom
thought that was funny, I still remember her laughing and teasing. I remember the last house we lived in while in Sparta. It was referred to as the "Bottom". I found out later that the streets name was "Bottom". There was a creek running right through the backyard. It was like my very own fantasy land I considered that my own world. It was only about twenty or thirty feet from the house. I kept all my toys down there, the soldiers, the trucks, the cowboys and Indians, I'll always remember those days as my days of discovery and imagination. The make believe seemed so real there. When we moved to East Saint Louis, IL, they were all left behind. I always thought that we'd go back and get them, but that never happened. Even then I would dissemble the trucks and cars and put them back together. A funny thing I remember is that when I dissembled the metal toys, they were something else once before. I always wondered why they had soup or oil labels in side. A toy mail collection box that was actually a soup can before it was a toy. I wondered why they did that. I now know that they were made in Japan with recycled cans. There was a dog named Mitze, She had pups once, She and I carried them around like ragged dolls from place to place. I don't even know if she was my dog, but we hung out together at the house and on the creek. Ha, I remember how we would carry those pups to the creek in the late morning and bring em' back every evening. We would go to visit relatives often, The Laws, The Wilson's, The Douglas's', and The Caldwell's. I always had a good time around them at least until I had to hang with the relatives slightly older kids. They would always pick and tease me and Terry for some reason, but we never fought. |
