The Unkissed Man (1) My Father

What was your childhood like? What was your dad like? Did you get along?

My father didn't think much of me up. He was constantly telling me I was useless and would never to anything. It got pretty sometimes. I remember being in my grandfather’s plane at 12,000 feet once and my dad was yelling such terrible things at me that at one point I tried to open the door and jump out. I just couldn't it anymore and wanted to get it over with. I wonder if he would have stopped me if I had been able to open that damn door. I mean, would he have me and pulled me back? Probably not.

Was he like that with your mother, too? What did he do for a living? Did anything happen in his life to make him that way?

Yes. She was a homemaker—what's called a stay-at-home mom these days—and couldn’t drive because she had a lot of panic attacks. That made really hard for her. She couldn't around on her own and had to rely on others. My dad was a construction supervisor, whose job was to keep the workers from off, and he kept people around even in his time. He'd been in the war and, to my grandmother, he was one of only a few survivors on a ship of 250 people that . She says that that was when he snapped. He had to be taken home in chains. Apparently he was a nice person before that. So the Japs are to for turning him into a monster, I guess.

Did you have siblings or are you an only child?

I have a much older brother that I talked to in years. Then there was a baby boy who away before I was born. My father was directly for his death even though he would never admit it. The boy was crying one day, the way babies do, and my dad got really and he made mom take the crib outside and leave the baby out in the rain until he got quiet. He then refused to take him to the hospital, saying he'd be fine and mom was . By the time the ambulance arrived the baby was dead. We were not allowed to the boy's name in our house, let alone the that led to his death.