During the summer of 1976 we had 3 tents in the backyard and it was very common for my friends to spend the night pretty much whenever they wanted to. We were 16 at the time and the girl next door had a bunch of girlfriends for us and a pool so all was right with the universe.

I remember watching the All Star game that year, Ron LeFlore from the Tigers led off the game with a single and the sounds of “Frampton Comes Alive” filled the summer air.

One day, one of my friends, Bob Welker, was working at the K of C in the kitchen and saw that the beer tap was left unprotected so he grabbed an empty plastic gallon milk jug and filled it up with beer. He then hid the gallon of beer until he got off, then put the gallon in his newspaper route bag and rode it over to the tents in the back yard.

We had no way of hiding an entire gallon of anything in the tents and the only thing big enough to cover it up was a matress we had in one of the tents so we slid the gallon of milk under the mattress and except for a small lump you could not really notice anything (A combination of a lumpy mattress and an unlevel back yard).

That evening was the night we watched the All Star game and I had a few friends over to watch it with. All of a sudden dad comes into the tent to see how we were doing. We told him fine and said we were having a good time watching the game and how cool it was of Ron Leflore to lead off with a single.

Just that moment he decided to sit down, since all the chairs were taken in the tent he sat on the mattress that was covering the beer. As we watched this in horror we saw little trickles of beer begin flowing out from under the mattress. These actually began to puddle and we were certain we were going to be busted. Finally after what seemed an eternity, dad got up and left the tent and we quickly cleaned up the mess we made as Bob Welker shed tears of anguish for his once glorious gallon of beer.

Needless to say we never had any more gallon jugs in the tent that year.

Mom was in the hospital for an operation on her thyroid gland. Dad, Peg and I, were almost starved to death while she was in the hospital, he was in the “let’s make dinner in the blender” stage. YUCK!

He put eggs, catsup, vegetables and all kinds of stuff in it that I don’t even remember and no way were we going to drink that stuff, we were young but not that stupid.

Peg tried making hamburgers in the frying pan, don’t know why but she took the hot pan over to the sink after taking the hamburgers out (hell,she could of left them in there for all I know.lol) she turned on the faucet on as hard as it would go to put water in the skillet, don’t think she had the grease out of it because the kitchen curtains caught on fire and all I heard was her calling for Dad. Now you know you have to have almost lost your mind to call Dad to a fire. lol

You know how he was about fires and the house burning down.

He comes in and the curtains were all a blaze, I don’t remember what he said or yelled, I think I blocked that out of my mind. I am sure Peg would remember what he said, think I ran out of the room to a safe area. lol

Mom went food shopping and we wanted to visit the snake pit (which was across Dixie road from the parking lot,down the hill to the boat). Mom took Charlie with her to the store and she would pick us up after food shopping. As we went into the snake pit we knew this was out of our league. We saw snakes and Spiders behind glass and it was gross. The woman asked if we wanted to see a turtle instead and we both said yes. Out the back door we went and almost tripped over this huge Grey rock right in the middle of the path. This is our one hundred yr old turtle and out popped its head and legs. We asked what he ate and other questions about the turtle. After asking these questions we went into the gift shop where we saw a black metal spider with a pin on the back.

Chris said “get that”!

“Chris they will kill us if I buy that”, I responded. I was in charge of the spending money.

Needless to say I bought the silver and black metal spider with a straight pin on the back. It looked so real, where should we put it so they will notice it? I put the bag with spider into my purse and Mom was waiting for us in the car. After loading the boat up with bags of food, rowing back to our home away from home, unpacking the boat, and tying up the boat we finally went into the house.

There was only one door at the house and that was the front door, everything else was privacy curtains. These were curtains that you pulled for privacy for each bedroom and for the living quarters. That’s were we put the spider, right on the entrance curtain just to the left of the over stuffed chair and sofa.

Then Chris, charlie and I yell all together “SPIDER”. The first person out was Dad and he ran past it without seeing it.

We all pointed to the curtain so Dad grab a fly swatter and started hitting that spider. Dad hit it so hard it fell off the curtain onto the floor, us kids jumped on the sofa and yell “kill it Dad, kill it”. This time Dad was steping on it and saying “Loretta this spider doesn’t flatten like the others”. Mom came out and we sat up and didn’t say a word just like little angels sitting nice and quiet. Mom bent over and picked up the spider and looked at all 3 of her angels than said “this is a metal spider”.

Well, Dad said it sure looked like the ones I’ve been killing all week. Mom couldn’t help but laugh right out loud and say “Well Chuck you were right the kids gave us a show we will never forget. They created the entertainment for tonight”. Dad even laugh too, it was a good joke. Grandma Graf came out and joined in. You know I think that spider brought the family closer than any radio or TV set could. We talked about it at dinner and the next day. Dad invited Uncle Harry and Uncle Joe to the island and told them about the spider story.

My name is Peggy I’m 58 yrs young at the time of writing this. I bought the spider. Even to this day when I get sad or blue I think about Dad hitting that poor metal spider with the fly swatter, then with his foot. I laugh just like I did when I was a kid. I will remember that day for the rest of my life.

We can’t forget devils night when I was young. I was too young to be out at night and it was devils night,we were suppose to go out and ring door bells and soap windows and I wanted to had to be a part of it,but Mom said no way was I going out on devils night,meant only trouble and was too young to go out after dark anyway. I pouted for awhile then forgot about it until the next day when Mom called me and accused me of soaping her windows,told her that I was always blamed for everything that happened around there and was tired of it and that I had not gone out that night because she would not let me and she told me that she knew it was me because they were soaped from the inside.

I also remember that every Halloween we went out got bags of candy,that’s when they gave the big candy bars and you could be out until 11 without getting hurt or the parents being worried. We would come home and I would empty my bag and my girlfriend and I went back out,did this a few times. When I got home for the night and wanted to look at all my treasures,I asked what happened to the big candy bars. Dad had gone through each bag as I left it,not as a caring father to make sure everything was ok with the candy but to take the big candy bars for himself.

I did all the work and he got the candy. I was left with the junk candy and apples,said the apples were better for me

Camp Dearborn-oh does that take me back in time. We were living on Sherwood ct, in Dearborn, when Major Hubbard decided to buy land and make a park for all the people of Dearborn to enjoy. Our Dads boss Mr Hayford wanted his family and our family to go to camp Dearborn for a week or two. The first time we went there it seemed like a ride to the end of the earth. There were no expressways or freeways, they were not made as of yet. We did get there and it was beautiful two large gates Dad drove the car through and saw a huge sign Welcome to Camp Dearborn.

Some things in the park were too far to walk to so Mom drove us kids to the Paddle boats. For fifty cents we could ride for an hour. Chris and I were in one boat and boy was it nice. The first time on a boat that we made go with are feet. Each boat had a number on it and when the man on dock called out your number you had to go in the ride was over. Our number was called. We headed in to the dock we were right in front of the dock so we stopped with our feet, that’s when the boat moved back and now we were away from the dock again. Chris my sister said I will climb on the front of the boat and grab the line and hop onto the dock and pull the boat in. Sounded good, but Chris forgot to grab the line. My sister made it to the dock jumping up and down that she made it. Meanwhile I’m trying to paddle but kept going in circles. I stopped I saw Mom on the Dock now and she wasn’t happy at all. I guess she got angry that the men on dock wouldn’t help little girls. I know she said a few choice words for them. One Guy got into a motor boat and came out to get me as I was in the middle of the lake by now. He grabbed the line and the boat and I were in tow. Needless to say that was my first and last time on the paddle boats with my sister.

Continue reading “Story – Camp Dearborn Paddle Boats by Aunt Peg 1959” →

We went to a wedding reception,think it was in Wyandotte. Dad of course got drunk as usual, he usually took home a couple of glasses when he drank but this time since he paid for a gift for the happy couple he decides that he is taking home a chair and yes he did take it out of there, don’t know how but he did.

It was raining on the way home and mom is trying to tell him how to go and he tells her that he knows a short cut and to shut up. We take this short cut and get stuck in the mud from all the rain, not knowing where the hell we are or at least I didn’t because you could not see for the rain again.

Next day they come back for the car and it was stuck right in the middle of a baseball field.

Dad’s short cut, he didn’t know where he was either.

On one of our weekends with the kleibers Grandpa Kleiber was telling me about working at Fords and how he met Henry Ford Sr. for the first time. I loved his stories about working at Ford Motor co. There was one story that chill me down to my bones.

The biggest secret I ever kept till now. My Grandfather was a tool and die as he put it a skilled worker for Ford Motor Co. I still don’t know what a tool and die was but I know he must have made a lot of money doing it. Grandpa said Fords went into Germany before the war to build Automobiles cause it was cheap labor over there. Fords built auto plants there and Hired Jews to work in their plants, but they paid the Nazi’s the money. Grandpa why didn’t they pay the Jews they did the work? Grandpa said at that time Jews were being put to death, they could live if they worked for Fords. Grandpa than said when war broke out Fords left Germany, but left the factories they built and all the scrap iron there too. The Germans turn the factories into War factories instead. Why Grandpa didn’t they destroy the stuff instead of leaving it for the Nazi’s? Grandpa said it had something to do with a deal they had made with the Nazis to build there in the first place. Mom and Dad had come to take us home so we said our goodbyes and went home.

At home mom went to the backyard to weed and plant flowers. I went into the living room to ask Dad about what Grandpa had told me. After I told dad he grabbed my arm, dad your hurting me. Dad said Don’t ever repeat that in this house again. Your Grandfather should have never told you that. Your Mother will not understand we could lose everything this house, everything. You have to promise me that you will never say a word about this again. I promise Dad. I never said anything about it again. Years Later Dad die, and I was much older. I was watching the late news on channel 50 when they told the same story that Grandpa had told me. The story I promise never to say. I was so afraid Mom would fine out. One Morning I heard Mom let out one of her blood curling Screams. I ran to the kitchen and asked what’s wrong? Mom was reading the Paper, she pointed to were she wanted me to read. The paper had printed the whole dirty story on a back page. Mom always read page by page of the newspaper. Finally Mom said I just bet your Dad knew all about this! I would have made him quit or I would have divorce him right on the spot. I told Mom we will never know Dad is dead. Your right, but there is something I can do. Dad had stock in Fords and never cash it in. Mom had the stock now. Your right Mom sold the stock. I knew she would miss those dividends that she got from the stock, but this had to be done. I Think back on this now and I realize that is the reason I could tell my brother about the Holidays. The story of the Easter Basket, I knew a dirty secret just between me and my Dad.

Each week usually meant a visit to Trenton. The adults would play cards upstairs while the kids played in the basement. Mark and Peg used to pick on me because I was the youngest and they were older and bigger than I was. We would get in all kinds of things in that basement in Trenton while they were all upstairs playing cards. Uncle Harry and Grandma Graf were still alive and dad would go over there too and play cards.

Grandma Graf always had a fifth of whiskey in her bedroom for when she had a cold ,she would take a drink of it,funny that dad always thought he was coming down with something when he went to Trenton just to get a drink of her whiskey.

We were down stairs as usual and Mark and I put on Boxing gloves and he accidentally hit me hard so I started to cry and Mark tried to get me to stop crying before they would hear me upstairs. He would do everything,he would tell me to hit him back and I did as hard as I could,which was not much with how little I was and he would act like I really hit him hard and would fall on the floor and act like he was really hurt but I still kept crying.

The parents finally yelled down to us to see what was going on (after they got done playing out their hands, of course). We went up stairs and when Uncle Harry found out what had happened he started kicking Mark down the hall, was like a cartoon, he would kick and mark would jump and this went on all the way down the hall.

I didn’t know what he did to him after that but I did stop crying. lol

One year we vacationed on an island that was far removed from civilization. We had to row a boat over to get there or to go to a store, don’t know where Dad found that fantasy island, the only fun thing in that town when you were on dry land was the snake pit. We had an aluminum boat to row back and forth to get the suitcases and any groceries over there,of course we kids thought it was cool. Dad took our only transportation over to land and that was the boat, don’t know what would have happened if someone got hurt and needed to go to the hospital.

Big rain storm that night, lightning the whole bit, lit up the whole little island. There was a full size homemade bunkbed in one room that Peg and I slept on the bottom and Mark slept on the top which made his mattress come just a couple of inches from our noses so he liked that and would jump up and down on it a lot. lol

Around 3 in the morning, we hear yelling “LORETTA, LORETTA”, Mom gets up and in the lighting and rain that you could not see in front of your face for the rain, here was Dad, drunk, rowing the aluminum boat yelling for mom to turn a light on because he didn’t know where the island was.

He gets in finally and someone put a rubber spider on the curtains to be funny and Dad saw it and took a broom to the curtains and was hitting them so hard that they fell down.

Mark, Peg and I go fishing the next morning and Uncle Harry let me use his pole, I was so excited that he would entrust me with it. So we are sitting with our poles in the lake and Mark of course wants to catch this big turtle that he has been hearing about. We came close,but it bit on my line (or rather uncle Harry’s line) and broke the line. I didn’t want to go back in and tell Uncle Harry that I broke his line but he was understanding as usual and he did not get mad.

Peg had a new watch that dad had bought her and she was so proud of because he bought her something. It was a type that you wound up by moving your wrist so Peg rowed me and her around the lake and back. The hands were going around so fast when we got back we could not keep track of it, needless to say it broke from that and Dad was not too happy.

My birthday fell over those weeks that we were on Alcatraz and all I got was a ring from the snake pit with a plastic snake on it.

My favorite story of all time one is when I was little,we were on Tulane then,Charlie wasn’t born yet and Dad was working afternoons and back then they only had one car and if mom needed the car for anything like shopping then she would have to drive him in and pick him up.

He comes home after work and had a few at the bar (the dump as it was commonly referred to) and came into the bedroom and woke me up,now this was after 12 midnight and I was only about 6 or 7 at the time and asked me if I wanted to go and have a hamburger and of course I said yes, middle of the night,that was really cool for a kid. Had to be quiet he said and not wake anyone up so I was quiet, we went to the bar, I got my hamburger, pop and chips.
He was in deep conversation with some other guys at the bar and had his change from the drinks on the bar as everyone does, I asked dad while he was talking if I could have more chips and he said no,asked again and he said no,so while he was still talking with these guys thought I will get mom to make him get me more chips. This is when I am sure that dad was sorry that I knew the home phone number by heart.

I took a dime off the bar, he didn’t even notice, went to the phone and called home, mom answered, could tell that she just woke up and sounded groggy, I said “mom, dad won’t buy me anymore chips” she asked who is this? Then she woke up and said “Criss?” I said yes and told her again,so Mom says “let me talk to you father” here I thought,now he is going to get it, mom will make him buy me more chips. I told Dad that Mom wanted to talk to him, I yelled it from the phone, he turns around, omg, talk about a Kodak moment, would of loved to have gotten a picture of his look on his face with the phone in my hand. lol

He got on the phone and after he got off just said that we were going home, needless to say he never woke me up again to go to the bar with him. Didn’t get that other bag of chips either. lol