Growing up in a large family there are many memories that I will hold until the day that I die. One that has always haunted me goes back over 38 years and while having a casual chat with my mother tonight on the phone January 13th. 1974 came back like a FLASH BACK and reminds me just how insane and dysfunctional life really was as a child.
My natural father was in the radio business and he worked out of town and we seldom saw him week days or nights and he usually made it home on the weekends to spend his free time either intoxicated or well on his way to intoxication. These week end stays at the house become very abusive to my mom and us kids not to mention the verbal and emotional abuse that we all were constantly showered with.
We lived in a very large home in Manchester, Connecticut and the place was usually in one state of dis repair or another at any given time. I recall there were at least two possibly three mortgages on the house that were in default. We had plumbing problems. Toilets that didn’t stop running, kitchen sinks that did more than just drip and a bath tub that leaked so bad the ceiling below was constantly wet and dripping.
My mother hounded the old man to fix the leaks and drips and finally he relented and announced that he would be taking care of them over this particular weekend. Well, that Saturday morning Dad and a family friend we will call Felix came to the house bright and early and mom took all of us kids out shopping and to a friend’s house for the day. I recall when we returned home later that evening the old man and Felix were both very heavily intoxicated and he announced that the plumbing was all fixed and the house was now drip and leak free.
Dad and Felix left (they did return later as you will see). Mom was so exhausted from the day she asked my oldest brother Steve to go into the pantry and fill the tea pot and start some water boiling so she could have a hot cup of tea. I remember clear as a bell Steve telling her the water wasn’t working and her saying “they must have forgotten to turn the valve on under the sink”. Nope, they didn’t forget to turn it on, they had cut and capped the pipes. Not only did they cut and cap those pipes they capped every pipe in the house accept a water feed to toilet in a half bath just off the first floor back hall.
The old man was 100% correct when he stated that we had no more drips or leaks. We had no frigging water. I thought my mother was going to totally loose it when he showed up an hour or so later. When she asked him what we were going to do for water he told her the water in the tank of the toilet was clean. Friends…you can’t make hell like this up. This was truly dysfunction at the worst. I was 7 days shy of my 11th birthday and all hell was breaking loose right before my eyes.
One thing lead to another and my natural father started to move towards my mother in a manner we had all witnessed so many times before and I decided I needed to get in between them and protect my mom from his wrath. I made some comment about keeping his hands off of my mom and I recall a very strong fist right into my throat from a man who was over six feet tall and weighing over 260 pounds at the time. The next few minutes were very confusing and I remember riding in the back seat of a police cruiser with my mom on the way to the emergency room.
January 13th 1974 was the day my mother made a decision to leave my father.
The insanity of this plumbing problem went on for a very long time after the actual date. We actually pulled dirty dinner dishes in a little red wagon to a neighbor’s house to wash them. We bathed at the neighbor’s house and there was a long line in the mornings for the only functioning toilet in the house. This friend’s is why I refer to this RAMBLING as Dysfunctional Plumbing…
Have a great day….See you soon.
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