A Life Extra Ordinary - Chapter 2, Page 14

Kathryn's mother and father had the farthest thing from a marriage made in heaven... the miracle was that they were married for over forty-years, but they had five of the most beautiful daughters any father could want. And in spite of all his parental flaws, he was proud of his daughters.

On Easter, he paraded them around his milk route to customers who insisted that he bring them by all dressed in Easter bonnets and matching dresses sent from crazy Aunt Pearl in California. It seemed like a strange sideshow even back then, but it was an opportunity to be the apple in their father's eye... princesses for a day.

There were so many episodes that only seem funny in hind-sight, like the time Kathryn and her sisters woke up one Saturday and found the glass in the front porch door shattered. They were terrified that someone had broken in.

“They stole dad's clothes,” said the youngest sister pointing to a pile of clothing strewn across the front yard.

Kathryn checked and both her mother and father were sleeping soundly in their bedroom. She returned to the front porch with a broom and dust pan and cleaned up the broken glass, while her sisters picked up the clothing from the front yard. They folded and hung the clothing in the front closet and quietly went back upstairs, so as not to wake their parents.

Their mother hated being woken up.

The fighting was ritualistic... Kathryn's father worked two jobs most of his adult life and yet very often managed not to bring home his pay because of some pony named Daddy's Girl, or Dancin' Didi, or Darlin' Clementine.

He learned how to duck and fend off the good China from their wedding, which was down to a gravy boat and the last tea saucer. Not that mom wasn't a good shot, he was just light on his feet for a big man. He would then hide behind a hot washcloth trying to drown out the screaming that followed the barrage of tea cups and soup bowls.

It was a very odd sight indeed, five foot two Edith screaming and swinging away at six foot two Gene hiding behind a hot washcloth, while everyone else scrambled for high ground out of sight. She was a pistol their mother and he was, well he was their father an enigma. A man whose mother left him at the age of nine because he looked too much like his father... never to be seen again.

A man who loved to sing and dance almost as much as his five foot two wife... a man with a non sequitur sense of humor who played “The Amazing Kreskin” at retirement parties... a man who admitted the day after Edith passed that he had not been a very good husband, but could they shake a leg and belt out a tune...

“Five foot two, eyes of blue, but, oh, what those five feet could do! Has anybody seen my gal? Turned up nose, turned down hose, flapper, yes sir, one of those! Has anybody seen my gal? Now if you run into a five foot two covered with fur, diamond rings, and all those things, betcha life it isn't her! But could she love, could she woo, could she, could she, could she coo! Has anybody seen my gal?”

Singing was a family affair... not a single road trip whether 5 minutes or a 5 day cruise motored along without the merriment of the singing duo of Gene and Edith, and their swinging quintet... sextet... septet... “oops there goes another kilowat dam”.