| When i was six and in 1st grade,
we moved to the other side of town closer to school.
That was the time Dad bought a stalk of bananas.
There wasn't much room in the kitchen for them. Dad put them behind
the couch. One day we couldn't find my brother Donald. He had
hid behind the couch and was eating the bananas. I don't remember
if he was punished. Anyway, he got a bellyache.
This was a nice time for us. Saturday night Dad would take us into town for a movie. After the movie we would go to the Ice Cream Parlor and have Ice Cream Sundaes or Ice Cream Sodas. We didn't have a car. It was a long walk from downtown. I liked to go to school. Mom would put my long blond hair up in rolls, so I would have long curls for school. That year we did the play "Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears". So with my long curls I was Goldie Locks. I loved being in a play! |
 |
I guess they didn't pay bills very good. When the insurance man
came, Mom made me go to the door and tell him she wasn't home.
She hid behind the door! I hated to do that, but Mom was the boss.
I don't rememeber when we left there.
I went to school sometimes when Mom would get up to send me. My teacher was
elderly and an alcoholic. I knew all about alcohol, especially wine.
When Dad had his cronys over to drink and play cards, they would send us to the movies.
One Saturday afternoon, Dad & Mom had a brunch of friends over to drink wine. They
didn't pay attention to what we kids were doing; as they passed the wine around I was
taking a dring each time. Tney finally sent my brother and me to the movies.
During the movie I got sick and threw up all over the place. My brother said,
"My sister is drunk!" Someone picked me up and took me and Donald home. They cleaned
me up and put me in bed. The party was over and everyone went home, but that
didn't stop the drinking.
[My uncle filled in some details before he died. He said that when they were living in
Chester IL, their dad felt that he had to deny to a policeman that he was Don Hemphill,
even when they weren't looking for him. They were, however, involved in counterfeiting
nickels and quarters in Marion! I have picked up a few counterfiet nickels in circulation
in Chicago, and one of them could have been made by my grandfather and uncle.
My uncle told me that the dies were buried in a well that is now under the County Courthouse.
| ← The White House | On The Run→ |