Chapter 1: Our family

My name is Marci and this story is mostly about my Dad and the things our family has gone through. My Dad is a big man. He stands at six foot five and weighs just under three hundred pounds. He's fifty years old.

He's not and has never been an overweight flabby fat person. He is a solid as a rock. I remember while we were growing up he would tell us to hit him in the stomach and he would laugh when we hit him. By we, I mean me and my brother Robert. He was named after our dad.

Dad was named William Robert Smith. As he was growing up people would call him Bill, for William and Bob for Robert, so his nick name was Billy Bob Smith. People are so original, aren't they? I'm mentioning this because it is important later in the story.

So he named my brother Robert William Smith instead of Junior. Dad never cared for the name Junior. Robert is a pretty big guy also, but nowhere near as big as Dad.

My Mom, Marsha, and Dad met in high school. Mom was the cheerleader and Dad the defensive and offensive lineman. They began dating their junior year. Mom always thought that Dad would become famous and make it as a pro football player, but he decided he didn't want to go to college.

Mom was mad at him for not even trying. He explained to her that he was happy with what he wanted to do in life. My grandfather owned a large independent grocery store. Dad was a meat cutter at the store. He also knew that someday the business would be turned over to him.

Mom stayed with dad and they got married shortly after graduation. Less than a year later I appeared and another year later they had Robert. Mom thought two kids were enough and had her tubes tied. Dad loved kids but he said it was his wife's choice.

A lot of people were a bit scared of Dad until they got to know him. To us kids and our friends, we all considered him a big Teddy Bear. He really was a gentle giant.

We had a good life. Mom worked at the store as a cashier part-time after Bob and I started school. I do believe she always had the dreams of becoming famous or at least meeting famous people.

Dad loved her and gave her everything she ever asked for. I never heard him raise his voice to her but she would get mad at him. It was always about something he didn't do or somewhere he wouldn't take her. He usually gave in eventually.

The store was open seven days a week and Dad worked most of them. But if we ever had a game or something going on at school, Mom and Dad would always be there for us.

Holidays were great. On Christmas morning we would all gather around our tree and take turns opening presents. There were very few things we did without. Most every year Dad would buy Mom a couple of tickets to a big time play or show she said she just had to see.

Most of them were in the large city fifty miles away and Mom would often go with her friends since Dad would probably be working. She did go to a couple of football games and even a hockey game with Dad but she preferred the bright lights of musical and Broadway type shows. They weren't Dad's thing.

Christmas dinner was always held at Grandma's and usually Thanksgiving as well. Grandma sure could cook. Mom would help and bring some side dishes. My dad's two sisters and their families would usually be there.

Mom's family lived in the next town over and we would visit them often. They wished Mom would have married some other man. For some reason they weren't fond of Dad even though he always treated them respectfully. I guess they wanted more for their daughter. They didn't understand that we had a wonderful family and enjoyed our life.

When we were old enough, Grandpa would give us jobs to do in the store and pay us. It made us feel important. When we told Mom we wanted to own our own store when we got older she about hit the roof. She said she wanted so much more for us and we should go to college.

We told her we planned on going to college to learn bookkeeping and get a degree in Business Administration. It would help us run our own businesses. Dad kept quiet about it and said whatever we wanted to do, he would be behind us.

I had just started college and Bob would be going the following year. Dad already had the money set aside for us to go. It was than that our lives changed forever.

Mom was getting mad all the time and said she was tired of working at the store and was going to start going out with her girlfriends. She told Dad that since he bowled every Friday, she was going out with her girlfriends. She wasn't going to stay home alone. Dad never denied her anything and she had gone out often with her friends.

We owned and lived in a four-unit apartment right next door to the store. Dad rented out two units and we lived in the other two. Bob and I lived together in one unit. It was rent-free as long as we took care of it. We each had our own bedroom but Dad said we had to keep the place clean or he wouldn't let us live there.

We felt so independent even with our parents just thirty feet away. We were allowed friends over but Dad let us know that if we brought in booze or drugs that he would not be Mr. Nice Guy. We had a few friends who thought they would by-pass Dad's rules. Big mistake! Dad grabbed them bodily and threw them out in the front yard.