Chapter 1: My Family

I was the only boy in a family of five. I never knew my dad. He died when I was still an infant. Islet Cell Carcinoma was the medical term, but that was just a fancy name for pancreatic cancer. He was fine one day, had stomach pains the next, and was dead within a month. I was barely six months old when it happened. I was named after him ... my name is Mike, but my mom and sisters call me Mikey.

It had to be tough on mom; I mean she had me to take care of and my three sisters all on her own. Aimee is barely 10 months older than me. Kimberly and Denise are 6 and 7 years older than me. Mom was still in her 20's when dad died.

The only saving grace was that he had taken care of us well, and his life insurance provided us with a stipend that meant mom never had to work. We weren't wealthy, but with careful money management and common sense, we lived a pretty good life.

And I'd have to say, thinking back on it, it was a good life.

Being that I was the runt, and the only boy, didn't seem to make any difference in our home. The older girls did their thing, which pretty much excluded Aimee and me from their activities. Understandable now that I am older. I mean who wants little kids hanging around you all day long. And since Aimee was close to my age, it was predestined that she would become my primary playmate.

Aimee and I had great fun climbing the old cherry tree in the backyard, hiding out from the make believe enemy in our treehouse, avoiding the imaginary sharks circling below us. Every day was an adventure with her. Since we didn't yet go to school, every day was a play day.

Up at 8:00, dressed in our play clothes and eating cereal by 8:15, out in the back yard by 8:30. We played army, monsters, house, you name it. Every game kids love to play with their creative little minds. In at noontime for lunch, back out again until supper at 5:00 p.m. After supper it was time to settle down and watch TV until bath time at 7:00. Clean up, brush our teeth, and get our pajamas on and then bedtime at 8:00.

Kimberly and Denise would get home from school at about 4:30, do their homework, and then they were gone to visit their friends, or have their friends over in their rooms until our bedtime. Aimee and I never knew exactly what they did with their time, but it was always behind closed doors to keep us out, probably top secret girl talk.

Mom just did what moms did. After all, she was a mom. She watched soap operas during the day, keeping the occasional eye on us in the back yard. Fixed the meals, cleaned the house, did the dishes and laundry. Mondays was always wash day and she would hang the clothes out on the clothesline while Aimee and I watched from the tree, snacking on cookies we smuggled up there along with our comic books. Life was very simple, very nice, and very pleasant in 1960.

Oh, did I tell you that I got my first 'golden shower' that year?

To be honest, it wasn't a sexual thing at all.

When I was 4, Aimee was 5. When I was 5, she was 6. All except for a month each year when we were the same age. During those years, after playing all day in the summer, we got pretty dirty. So when bath time came around, mom threw us in the tub together. Why not? We'd make a mess playing and splashing around anyways, and it saved time getting us clean. Plus mom had me wash Aimees hair and then Aimee would wash mine ... and behind the ears. But even with cleaning, there would still be plenty of time for playing in the tub with our toys and each other.

We were allowed to bring in one waterproof toy during tub time. I normally chose a plastic scuba diving navy frogman while Aimee liked to bring in a floating dragon that would hold a bar of soap. My frogman would attack the dragon, but he always lost to the dragon by being eaten up.

We'd play until we were waterlogged. We played until our skin was pale white and wrinkley. Our fingertips turned into prunes. And after half an hour, the water would start cooling down. We'd almost be shivering when mom came back at the end of the hour and helped us from the tub, making sure we didn't slip.