Chapter 6: Life In A Small Town
I was born and raised in a small steel and mining town in the Ohio Valley. My parents were old enough to be my grandparents. Dad was born in 1897 and mom in 1904. Mother thought she had a tumor but found out she was pregnant in her forties, dad was in his fifties. She referred to me as her little tumor. My brother was 21 years older and sister was 19. They each had 4 children, I was an uncle, the day I was born. I enjoyed a normal childhood with many playmates. We left our doors unlocked at night as there was virtually no crime. The men had high paying jobs in the mills or mines, the mothers didn’t need to work. I feel for families today where both parents must work just to make ends meet, leaving their children to fend for themselves. This was a much simpler time, and the values I learned have stayed true my entire life.
I was fortunate to have been raised in a loving home. Mom and dad weren't churchgoers, and the subject of God never came up. They did teach a little prayer when I was very young. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray to the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I awake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.” So as a toddler, the existence of a higher power was ingrained. When I became older, friends would discuss God. “Where did God come from? I don’t believe any of it.” I couldn’t answer but retained my belief. Today, I simply accept the truth that God Is. My knowing of a higher power has survived countless attacks for 50 years and continues to grow. My perception of this world is changing to wisdom that understands all is most perfectly well because of the supreme Love of God. Love is not an emotion but an extremely powerful force which guides, teaches and sustains. If you’re experiencing doubts about these statements, I’ll offer proof later in my manuscript.
Some of our family gatherings were hilarious. On Christmas Eve, mom had worked all day on dinner, dad had been nipping on his vodka. All 15 of us are sitting around the dining room table, I was 10. Dad’s at the head of the table, his job being to carve the turkey. He’s drunk. After putting a fork in and holding with the knife, he gave a big heave and the turkey flew into the Christmas tree. Instantly my mother’s face became a brilliant red, I was a little scared because I’d never seen anything like that before. “Bill, get the g_ damn turkey out of the Christmas tree.” We could hear a pin drop until my sister’s laugh broke the tension. After picking the needles out, we ate.
I quit believing in Santa at the age of 11. Sam weighed over 300 lbs. and had claimed the Santa role for as many Christmases I could remember. He had taken numerous shots of varying alcohols at every home he visited and was extremely merry when he reached ours. After staggering up the stairs to go to the bathroom, he tripped and landed in the bathtub. He was so big that dad had to call the fire department. The squad getting drunk Santa out of the bathtub raised questions.
Another time we went up to visit my aunt and uncle in Akron. Mom woke up hammered in the middle of the night. After opening what she thought was the bathroom door, she fell head over heals down the basement steps. She had a huge bruise on her hip and a black eye. The same weekend, my uncle threw up and flushed his false teeth. Spring arrived, Charles hated doing yard work and would always drink shots beforehand. He’d decided to trim a tree. My aunt heard, “Ruth, Ruth”, she went out and Charles was hanging upside down, drunk, with his foot caught in a branch. She called the emergency squad, who called the fire department. This incident made it to the newspaper and local television.
Mom was a class-rated bridge player with excellent card sense. Bridge is to poker what chess is to checkers. When I was in my late teens, we had poker games almost every Saturday night. The pots would sometimes be in the hundreds. She’d drink her vodka and seldom lost. My friends loved her infectious laugh and personality. She used to say having such a late baby kept her young. She loved to read and only had a high school education. Being so well-read, I tested her once while we watched Jeopardy, she knew every answer.
Dad was superintendent at Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel, being boss over the nail mill at LaBelle and the coupling department at Benwood. He had a trait that is somewhat missing today, integrity. If he told you he’d do something, he did it. He always kept his word. When I was 18, he hired me to run a reamer. I started on the midnight Saturday shift. A coupling was threaded on both sides and held the pipe together. The reamer is a big drill bit. A coupling would go into a vice grip, the drill would come down and thread one side. I’d pull the vice out, turn it over, push it back in and thread the other side. Knock the coupling out and do another. I worked hard all night and was absolutely exhausted in the morning. I turned the car on and couldn’t hear the engine running due to my ringing ears.
I was filthy dirty, covered in cutting oil and furious. When I arrived home, dad was sitting in his living room chair drinking coffee. I tearfully said,“There's nothing you can say, nothing you can do. I am not going back in that hellhole.” Now it's important to him that I work hard, he’s the big boss and all the men knew I was his son. His response was,” Bob, you're 18 and a man. Your mother and I are going on vacation today, and we won’t know if you go back in or not, your call.”
If he’d said anything else, I would have quit. I went to work and became quite good on the job. I maintain to this day, if I hadn't, I would have been a quitter all my life.
The Ohio Valley was booming after the 2nd World War. Mom and dad had raised my brother and sister through the Great Depression. I was spoiled and mom used to say, “Whoever marries you is going to have a job on her hands”. My future wife, Mary Jo, did. After college, I moved to Columbus and accepted employment at Buckeye Steel as a foreman. When I was 27 I moved back home. Dad was retired, mom had cancer. The last time I saw mom alive was in a nursing home on Good Friday. I visited and walked out of the room, for some reason I stopped, looked back in and said, “I love you, mom. I love you too, honey.” This was the last time I saw her alive. She died on Easter. Mom and dad had been married for 50 years.
I called my sister, Sue, and she drove down on Monday. Dad was sleeping downstairs, we had put his bed in the dining room. Sue woke up in the middle of the night and went into the dining room to get some cigarettes. Dad woke up out of a dead sleep, saw Sue, and started screaming. He thought Sue was mom. The look on Dad’s face really upset Sue, she was visibly shaken. My brother Bill came down the next day with his two sons. All the family soon arrived and we attended the funeral. The main problem we all had was alcohol and tempers. After mom’s funeral, the vodka caused everything to explode. Sue tearfully mentioned to Bill what had happened the prior night. His anger started calling Sue names I won’t mention. I’d listened to enough of his rants and threw him to the floor. I was on top with my fist raised when his son pulled me off. We went downstairs and drank some more vodka. Bill then started insulting me. I said, “Let’s go!” I’m following him outside, and was stopped again by his other son. “Don’t go, he’ll kill you.” I calmed down, and after a few minutes said, “I’ll just talk with him.” When I went outside, he sucker punched me. I went down, he grabbed my hair and began slamming the back of my head on the concrete step. His sons pulled him off and a neighbor called the police. The police calmed us down, and we went into the kitchen to have another drink. Bill said, “I’ve wanted to do that to you for a long time.” “Glad you’re happy.” I went to bed and slept on my back. When I woke up, the pillow was stuck to my head from the blood. I went to the hospital, receiving over 40 stitches, and went to work. So the night we buried mom, I almost ended up dead or in jail.
Looking back on my life is when I realized God’s existence because of the miracles that occurred. You’ll see. The best was getting crushed with a thirty-ton, fifty-thousand horsepower overhead crane and not being cut in two.
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