Life Was Good...

    Life was good. I wish we knew how much life would change. How when your young all you have to do is go to school and learn life's lessons and just be a kid. Be a kid. I knew what that was supposed to be like but it seemed to be slipping away.
    The kids role in our house was changing, well the older kids roles were. Barb and I were in charge more of the house. We had certain rooms to clean living room and dining room were rotated and the kitchen was whose ever mom made do it. Mostly mine or it just didn't get done.
    On Saturday we would go to the grocery store and she was praised at how well her kids behaved themselves in the store. All of us knew our place. You talked when spoken to and smiled cute when talked to and always said please and thank you. Mom always had 5 kids with her.
   Then we had to carry it all in and help put it away.
    I hated doing dishes, it seemed like nobody would finish the dishes and we would just keep using them until there weren't anymore in the cupboard. The water would sit for days sometimes and when you stuck your hand in to get the dish cloth, the water was so gross that it was slimy and that got all over your hand. SO NOBODY wanted to drain it. GROSS!!!  We started getting Cockroaches. The house was getting dirtier. The clothes were starting to pile up, we always had clean clothes. They just didn't smell as nice as other peoples did. I couldn't figure out why.
    I HATED doing dishes and to this day I hate them and I have a dishwasher.We weren't very good at being in charge I was only 9 and Barb was 11.
    Saturday was deep cleaning day and we would sweep and mop the floors and wash the walls and the doors. Linda was still coming over to help.
    The bunk beds were gone and mom and dad gave us their double bed now we had two. Carol slept in one with Tammy and Barb had her own single bed and I shared one with Lori. At night we had a hard time getting Lori to go to sleep. So we would sing to her. One night we made up our own, the words were:  GO TO SLEEP DEAR LORI... GO TO SLEEP REAL SOON ..GO TO SLEEP DEAR LORI ..CUZ MOMMY'S ON THE MOON...THE MOON DOES NOT HAVE BABIES..THE MOON IS MADE OF GOLD...EARTH IS THE PLACE FOR BABIES...WITH PARENTS AND A HOME. We thought it was great and Lori loved it because she didn't know any better.
    It was a hit, we sang it to her every night. When we weren't singing or me in the corner we would ask mom to sing to us. I loved her voice. I can only remember certain lines of the songs she sang. She did sing things like...Jesus Loves Me This I Know ...Michael Row Your Boat A Shore ..Someones In The Kitchen With Dinah, Zachius, Amazing Grace, I'm Sorry, D..i..v..o..r..c..e.., A mother went out to a party....and if we didn't go to sleep she would just keep singing from her room and when she was tired she would say OK one more song. We knew one more would be mostly 3 more, she loved singing to us as much as we loved her singing. She also said our prayers with us, she would start them and we would jump in and add stuff or remember someone somebody forgot. And morning would come.
    Connie and her mom Louise lived next door to us in the duplex. I loved Connie she had beautiful blond hair and she was carefree and fun. I would go to her house and she would bring her radio on the porch and sometimes her phonograph and she would play the "BEATLES" she told me there were four of them..Ringo..Paul ..John.. and George. Ringo was the drummer. She said Paul was the best. Linda liked the Beatles as well, but not like Connie. When ever Tim was around Connie would smile lots more that normal, later I figured out that she liked him. And a couple of years ago Connie told me that my brother had saved her from an attack, and he was her hero. He was always mine too.
    Connie was so much fun to be around. We would dance like crazy I learned how to do the Jerk, Belly Roll and another dance too I can't remember the name but Connie called it dirty dancing, I loved it. Louise, Connie's mom sold Avon and mom bought Avon nail polish called Fireworks and there were all different colors, ones you see today but would never dream of wearing then.Mom did.
     Louise had a dog that was going to deliver puppies," Jeannie run home and ask your mom if you and Carol can watch the dog have her puppies. you can only watch if your mom says yes", so I ran next door and asked, I was excited " Mom, Louise said we could watch the puppies be born if you say so, so can we? Please?", " I don't care" her favorite words." Just don't touch them and if Louise tells you it's time to go you do it.". I ran out the door. She let us in the back door, the dog was in a box in the kitchen. There was blood in there. I started to get anxious. One Puppy, two puppies, three, she was getting tired, poor mama dog, I felt sorry for her she kept getting up and moving around trying to get comfortable. Also trying to keep her babies close and then another this time it seemed to be harder for her and the babies was born lighter, the others were a very pretty brown, more milk chocolate but this one was lighter. Mama pushed it away she wouldn't let her be with the rest of the litter, " Louise the mama dog is being mean to the new baby", I said, "There must be something wrong with it, when a mama animal  rejects a baby there is something wrong." I got it. "SO how will it live?" I asked and then I heard a crunching noise and I looked in the box and started to cry," Louise she's eating her baby!! Why? why would she do that, help her." Louise was such a quiet soul, she took me aside," Jeannie, that's what they do when there is something wrong, a good mama will eat her baby instead of letting it just die, do you understand?" " I think so", I replied. but I don't think I really did. Carol just sat there and watched..not a word from her lips she was just amazed or horrified. I was so sad she moved. First Connie left and then Louise did. I missed them for years.
       Debbie, my cousin was starting to get into trouble all the time. Debbie's mom used to make her go to the store and steal cigarettes for her when she didn't have any money, Debbie was one of three kids, and the oldest, she was 2 years older than me. Debbie was Barbs age. Robin, Debbie's sister was Carols age and Jeff her only brother was Tommy's age but they aren't born yet.
    Debbie  was always more like my sister than my cousin and even lived with us many times over the years. I had so much fun with Debbie when we were young. I could spend the night at her house when her mom worked and we would dress up in lace curtains and make dresses out of them and I would wear Audrey's beautiful high heels. we would put on her make up and the the fun would begin. I didn't use her perfume though it was called Chantilly and she poured it i the tub and washed her hair with it I just couldn't stand it anymore.
   I was Crystal Ball and I was a lounge singer, we would put on Audrey's phonograph and play Doris Day albums, Nancy Sinatra, Leslie Gore and a few more and we would sing our hearts out. We would pretend we were adults living on our own and our pop was champagne and made tiny sandwiches, we had such imaginations. Sometimes we played Batman and Debbie was Batman's girlfriend and I got Robin, I didn't care I liked Robin better. Then Batman wasn't Michael Keaton or George Clooney, It was Adam West. Yes an OK Batman for the time I guess, but not for me.
    We would also play Star Trek and she would get Capt. Kirk, I was totally fine with that. Still don't like him today, but I liked Scotty. We just had so much fun acting and pretending. Going swimming at Lake Calhoun was also always fun. Debbie would always get cold and want to leave, but they only lived 4 or 5 blocks from there so it was OK. We always went back. Audrey lived in the upper floor of a duplex and some young guys had lived in the bottom. We would spy on them or play pranks on them, like water balloons from the attic and knocking on the door and running, they finally moved.
   That was the last year I had so much freedom, then it was like Jeannie C, Riley would sing,( and I would blast when I cleaned,) " it was work Jeannie, work Jeannie,work Jeannie work, the hard times had just begun" I couldn't have written a more appropriate song for myself.Oh Yeah,  MOM WAS PREGNANT AGAIN!!!!