mom would have him painting the baseboards while he waited. And there was another fellow who told the other guys that,“He had me,” because I would not go out with him. I confronted him in front of all of his friends and embarrassed him to death. In Jr. High I was asked to be the singer with a band that some kids put together. I had a pretty good voice. The teacher in Algebra class had me tutoring some of the boys in algebra class. I always got 100’s. I was a cheerleader for the basketball team also. I always walked to grade school to and back about 2 miles each way, maybe more also to Jr. High. Sometimes I went home for lunch so that was over 4 miles a day. I was warned never to get into anyone’s car. There was a pervert just down the street from my house standing next to a billboard doing guess what??? I use to run past him on the other side of the street every day. I never thought about calling the police. After my dad moved out, my mom and I moved into the next door with grandma and rented our other half. I became the man of the house. My mom got a job in the First National Bank and became a secretary to the President of the bank. Everyday I had a list of chores to do before I went anywhere. I learned to do it right the first time. Believe me! I did all the cleaning, washing clothes (ringer washer) hanging clothes on the line outside, cutting grass, cutting hedges, shoveling snow, shoveling ashes from the furnace into a bushel basket and carried them up from the cellar on the outside stairs to carry all the way back to our long backyard every week. I even shoveled a ton of coal from one bin to another so we could get another ton. I did all the ironing and cooked dinner most nights. Mom didn’t care about Christmas trees; so, I would go to our butcher, Charlie Billus, six blocks away. I charged a tree and dragged it home and trimmed it myself. I then played phonograph records and marvelled at the beauty of it. I would make grandma watch me dance and I do not resent any of this as it gave me a sense of accomplishment and made me extremely responsible. Duty first! I also became very confident and mature.
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