Chapter 10

The cab dropped me off at my new home a week before school was to start. My parents had moved while I was on my summer trip but at least they left word where we had moved to. I knew right away that it was the correct house. My two younger brothers were shooting hoops on the basket attached to the two-car garage.

Denny the oldest yelled, “Mum, he’s home!”

Younger brother Eddie took the opportunity to steal the ball from Denny. This set off one of their typical yelling matches. Yep, I was home.

To say my arrival home was tumultuous would be putting it mildly. I had been gone all summer and had enough adventures for a lifetime. On top of that, I had raised our family’s standard of living by providing a new paid-for home, a new car along with money in the bank.

Mum came running out the door and swept me into a hug. Dad was right behind and started to shake my hand, but instead swept me into his own hug. Mary wrapped herself around my leg. At first, it was a continuous babble about the new house, new car, me being home, the adventures I had. No order for anyone of us. The words just flowed. I was home!

Things finally settled down and Mum gave me a tour of our new house. I was shown my new bedroom. Each of us had our own bedroom in the five-bedroom home. There was an eat-in kitchen, dining room, living room with fireplace, family room, a mudroom between the kitchen and garage. The master bedroom suite was downstairs. The upstairs had a junior suite with a small bathroom which was mine.

The other kids shared a bathroom. I suspected that one day my four-year-old sister Mary and I would be switching rooms, but that was in the future.

There was also a full basement with a recreation room. The rec room had a regulation size pool table, with a table tennis top which set on top of the pool table. There was also a fireplace and a wet bar. The laundry room was big and airy; there was a laundry chute on each floor so you could drop dirty clothes all the way to the laundry room!

The lot was about one acre in size which meant I would have a lot of mowing to do. Fortunately, the neighborhood was new enough that the trees were not full-grown, so I wouldn’t have to rake any leaves. I would miss burning them though. There was a brick fireplace out back for grilling, and I could still burn the trash in it, so my inner firebug would be satisfied.

The house had a gas furnace which meant I wouldn’t have to shovel coal and clean out ashes like the last house. That I wouldn’t miss at all. There was nothing worse than getting out of bed on a cold morning, with the coal fire banked, and having to go to the basement to get it going, and then waiting for the house to warm up. There would be five of us standing on the main warm air register on cold days.

I didn’t know if we would have a garden here as we did at the old place, as there weren’t any in our new neighborhood. There wasn’t a clothesline strung, but there was one of those whirly things that always seemed to need restringing.

After my tour of our new house, the family settled into the family room. Things had settled enough we could have a real conversation. There were a hundred questions about my trip.

My rodeo and ribbons were brought out, and I showed off the belt buckles I had won. After showing off my Colt 45’s Mum insisted that I keep them locked up in the gun cabinet in the basement.

My brother Denny pontifically stated, “You told us you camped in a dell. Dell is a proper name, like Mum’s sister Aunt Dell.”

“Denny, Dell can be a proper name like Aunt Dell, but when it is not capitalized it refers to a small secluded valley, similar to a dale. However, while a dale is a small valley, it is not necessarily secluded,” I told our budding young grammar Nazi.

“I was even given a ride by a Mr. Michael Dell out in Texas so Dell can be a first and last name.”

My now pouting brother was told to quit interrupting or go to his room by Mum. I started to tell about the bank robbery but Dad broke in, “We will talk about that later.”

John Wayne had sent the autographed copy of Variety that told about how Elvis Presley, Tab Hunter, and I had got in a fight in Mexico and I had to bail them out of jail. The Mexican Police had sold pictures of us all together with the Police so I couldn’t deny it. Actually Mum and Dad were okay about it.