I consider myself a good kid, matter of fact a damn good kid compared to the crew down the street. My father was stern, tough, and didn't take anything from anyone. I seen him beat my neighbor up for cussing in front of my mother (that serious). When I was old enough, me and my brother who's a year younger would have to cut grass, everybody's grass around the neighborhood. It was embarrassing, I'd go to school and be teased because I had to cut their grass and reminded how good they had it over me.
I didn't get paid a dime, my payment went to helping to put food on the table I was told so often. After school my homework was to arrive at an address with lawn mower and weed-eater and be done by the time he got home. If we ever finished before he got home, we'd have to wait outside until he went back and checked our work and wait til he finished taking his bath. My mother, she would work at night and have supper cooked along with my father's bath water and clothes laid out on-time. The weekends were no different, except he'd go with us and help out occasionally and disappear. Year's later we figured where he disappeared to, another woman who he chose over us after 23 yrs of marriage to my mother. I feel for her and I reminisce of all the times he asked her to bake a cake for the party at work, all the times he had to go shoot pool with his buddies or visit the casino.
When my mother went to work over-night, he'd come home and get clean while we pretended to sleep. Not any sooner I too was sneaking out of the house being sure to be back within a 3 hour time frame. My mother cried so many nights and tried really hard to hold our family together, to no avail. We were abused to a degree that I didn't know it was abuse until I became older. Whooped with extension cords and Jalapenos in our mouths and told, if they were to fall out we'd get whooped more longer. I swear that mans stamina was through the roof because every whooping seemed endless. We were to get bricks from outside (which were used for his construction jobs) and kneel on them all night. Sometimes, we even had to hold Encyclopedias with our arms extended out and if they fell we'd get a whooping. Our punishments were for hours and hours. I'd fake a restroom break just to relax my muscles and always noticed the time on the microwave to be after 12 a. m. I hated pretty days, I often wished it would rain just so we would not have to work that day.
