Michael and Little Stephen
conditioner and wall. Luckily, Mae caught it while it was still wet and got most of it off. Our painter, Vito, was painting our upstairs and he was able to cover up the nail polish on the wall. Vito had almost walked off the job a couple of days earli- er when Michael knocked over an entire can of paint. The next morning Frankie told Vito, “Do you know what I am going to do for you, Vito? I am going to give you some of my company.” A short time later Frankie asked me if he could watch Vito paint. Why I said yes I don’t know. I remember thinking that he must have exceeded his quota of bad behavior for the day. He promised faithfully to be good. Right. A few minutes later I decided to check on him. Instead of watching Vito paint, Frankie was in Mae’s room pouring out all her perfumes, powders, lotions and creams. It was quite a mess. I THINK I’LL TAKE A WALK I immediately sent both boys to bed. Then I left the house for awhile in order to cool down. Leaving the house for awhile has saved many children from their mother’s wrath. On the other hand, sometimes the boys
were as sweet as pie. Once Nana Dora was in the hospital and Herman was going to visit her there. I was pregnant at the time with Stephen. Herman called the boys aside for a “man to man” talk. Daddy told them that they should take very good care of Mommy because she wasn’t feeling so good. He told them to take charge of the house and to pick up their build- ing blocks and positively not let Mother do any work even if she wants to. The boys were so grown up and sophisticated about their respon- sibility that after Daddy left they really took charge. I had to ask permission even to wash a few dishes. OOH-YA OOPS When Stephen was one year old Mae left us to go to nursing school. Our new helper’s name was Ophelia. Stephen called her Ooh-ya. One day Ophelia let go of Stephen’s hand for a second and he tumbled all the way down the stairs from the second floor to the first. All I can say is God watches over little children, he wasn’t hurt.
178
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator