Monday, April 04, 2011

parents and sisters


One of Fleta's deer has come home.
Helen remembers Mama saying all of these weird saying. I never heard her say these things.
I stated that in 1950 I had the thought that mama was silly. now that doesn't mean that she was silly just that I thought so at the time after all I was 12 years old.
Helen said her mama was good to her, yes she was. Mother was always especially good to her babies but the older children were cast aside when she had another baby. She had a lot of babies with looking after daddy and the last baby her hands were full.
My mother led a life of sacrifice for her family no doubt but we didn't see things in the same way that doesn't mean that she was wrong necessarily just that she was different than I was. Helen and the younger children had an older mother and father than Richard and I did. I was born in 1938 my father was 23 years old and my mother was 18 years old, Helen on the other hand was born to parents that were approaching 40 years old. They had lived a life time since I was born.
My father worked as a farmer and we went to the fields and worked with him, Helen's father worked away from home and brought her a sack of candy on payday.
Helen and me had different sisters. Fleta was my baby sister. I carried her on my bony hip and fed her at the table as I ate my food. I shared my bed with the baby sister and sleep in a puddle of piss from 1948 to 1952.
On the other hand Helen's sister Fleta went to work, bought a car and took Helen and Betty to town to buy candy or to Harrison to see a movie.
Helen and me led different lives, had different parents and different sisters but all my sisters should remember that I am older than they are and smarter and remember places and things that they have never even dreamed of like cemeteries that they never knew about. They should remember if I wanted I could have left them all alone at some of those places crying their eyes out because I was the Oldest sister and the BEST.

5 comments:

Donna. W said...

This made me smile. Cliff's baby sister is always telling us that she had a different dad than the older kids: They had an alcoholic dad who regularly beat his wife. Baby Sister had an elderly, not very healthy dad who had to give up smoking and drinking or die, and was kind of a pushover for his little girl. Quite a different perspective than Cliff's.

Galla Creek said...

Helen and I even had different lives. I too don't remember those saying. I remember Mom being very good to us. Always looking out for the younger children.

Our lives made us who we are. I am glad you helped with us! I notice at school, some kids smell like pee. Often some have told me about sleeping with a younger sibling.

I so enjoy your version of life. I think we all have to admit that Mom was very stubborn and seldom changed her opinion. You would never discuss much with her except family. She did the best with what she had. Home and family were the important things on her list. I marvel at how she could make a meal with basic stuff and then how good it tasted...or were we just hungry.

Galla Creek said...

I am still thinking. I believe the big event that shaped my life was when Daddy has his break down. I was left feeling scared and alone and so aware of how bad things could be. You and your little family were having a hard time too. Life partly makes us who we are. Fleta and I clung together during this time. We made it...all of us. Also, Dad was a better father for daughters than for his son...just my take on this!

Sister--Fleta said...

Sometimes I remember things that are not. Sometimes you remember things that are not.

Galla Creek said...

Well, sometimes it is just how you viewed it and both versions are correct.