after the foster home

after the foster home

In my first post called “Earlier times” I related about my experience of being put into a foster home for a year when I was two.  I would like to continue that story and tell about what happened right after my parents came to pick me and my three brothers up.  I was small of course (3 when we left) so the sequence of events could be jumbled up a bit, nonetheless they are how I remember them.

We went to a house that for someone my size seemed to be quite large.  We were escorted into the kitchen and my parents being in a festive mood made up coke floats in those special coke glasses that are made for them, and gave each of us one.   I was in a state of shock since we were taken out of the home so quickly, but being a child I really enjoyed the floats.   My parents were of course delighted to be have us back and I think that they rented the large house for a very cheap price from some people they knew. I was later told by my oldest brother who was 10 at the time that my parents found out that the money they left to be spent on us was being misused, so they came and got us.  Well after the floats we were taken upstairs to bed.  The house had two staircases up to the second floor; one from the kitchen near the back door, and the other from the large living room, which had a large spiral staircase.  Upstairs had three large bedrooms (if I remember rightly) and one small one connected to the large bedroom over the kitchen. That was the room they put me in.

 It was a little overwhelming for me to suddenly be thrust into such what was to me a strange environment, to be sure and it took quite awhile for me to be able to go to sleep.  Well I did go to sleep; one of the good things about being a child, sleep was usually not a problem.  The next day I explored the place and was taken by it since it was so large and beautiful.  In the living room there was a large piano that I found and attempted to climb up on the stool that was in front.  It took a couple of attempts but I finally got myself up and sat down and tried to figure out what this large beautiful object was.  It did not take me long to try out the keys and was delighted with the noise that it made; actually I think I made a great deal of noise since my mother came and got me off of the stool after a time.  She let me play with it for awhile so she was thoughtful in allowing that.  After that I would always go for the piano when no one was around and played it quietly after that.

We were there for over a year that much I know, but for a 3 and 4 year old time is not a big issue….. unless it is meal time.  Sissy and the twins were born there, all three in one year; Sissy is only 11 months older than the twins.  I remember both times when I came into the dining room and I would find the new crib or cribs there and that would be the first time I would hear of it, that I had any sisters on the way.

We spent one Christmas there and I remember lying in bed and waiting to see if I could hear Santa coming to leave gifts.  Like I said above I could not stay awake long and was soon asleep until the morning.  It was a good Christmas that year since I was back with mom and dad and I have fond memories of it; the food, relatives coming over and lots of sweets.

It was just before the next Christmas that we moved; Christmas Eve I think.  I think my parents had to make a choice to either have good Christmas for us or pay the rent for the house for January.  Well they decided to move and again friends helped them out.  This time the house was way in the country and  only had three rooms.  The middle room which contained a large table and a pot belly stove which was used for cooking as well.  I remember how cold it was when we got there and how fast the stove warmed the room up.  On the left was a bed room and to the right of the center room was what seemed to me some sort of living room.  I remember waking up and going into the living room and finding many gifts for all of us. 

I loved the house since it was primitive, out in the country, and we spent a lot of time together.  I remember one day going into the woods with my two older brothers looking for box turtles.  We had quite a collection of them and keep them in a pen in the yard and I would spend a great deal of time just observing them. 

Across from the house their was a storm cellar and I can remember one night running for it with the rest of the household, on the way to it I saw a funnel in the distance but did not know what it was.  The cellar frightened me because of the dankness of the place and the number of strange insects that I never saw before.  My parents played games with us and we all calmed down a bit.  The storm did no damage to us and we went back into the house.

I also have another memory of me being in one of the fields that was just cultivated (the house was on a farm that our friends owed), and suddenly my mother was screaming at me to run.  I did not know what the problem was but I started running, well as fast a small almost 4 year old can run over up turned dirt and planting ruts in the ground.   My mother’s friend came up just when I was getting too tired to keep on going and grabbed me and carried me to the fence and got me over to the other side.  I later found out that there was a big sow the farmers owned, that was very mean and it cannibalized its young all the time.  It also killed small animals and ate them.  What happened is this, I was within my mother’s sight, she saw the sow in her pin see me and break out of the pen and came right for me.  My mother was afraid that the sow looked upon me as food, a morsel I guess, and after she screamed for me to run she went to the truck and got her gun.  By the time I was over the fence my mother shot the sow and killed it with one shot.  The farmer who owned the sow was not upset about the incident but was thankful that I was safe.  Well we had lots of ham and bacon for awhile after that.

Like I said it was primitive there but it was a good time for the family since we did spend a lot of time together.  I was sorry when we left and moved to Desoto. 

Peace

mitch