Phil's History – The Sad Years Part 3 (last in the series)

This is the third post in a series of the sad year. I want to be complete/I'm posting it. I will have some other stories in between before I get to "the crazy years". I hope this doesn't end up seeming like "the never-ending story"

I'm not sure when for sure if it was before my grandfather Gorman passed away or after. My grandmother Ruby McNeal told my dad on the phone that they were going to get a lawyer and take my sister, brother and I away from him and raise us. I remembePhil's History – The Sad Years Part 3 (last in the series)r my dad coming to my sister and I and asking us if we wanted to live with them. We said no in the strongest of terms. Neither of us wanted to leave Omaha but as it turned out that is what happened. We tried a nanny/housekeeper but that was too expensive and my sister and I really didn't bond with her. I still feel a little guilty because part of the reason we didn't like her is that she was a huge black woman and we were intimidated. She was very kind but rather loud and pushy.

While we were in Omaha, after the nanny, my sister and I were old enough to take care of ourselves. My sister became the caregiver for my brother who was less than a year old. She was quite attached to him and my dad was glad there was someone to take care of him. He depended totally on my sister. This came into play much later but that is a story for another day.

So what was after my grandfather's passing and before Christmas of that year my dad sold the house and we pulled up stakes and moved to Illinois. One of my dad's brothers, Pat had moved from Fairmont to Wilmington Illinois which was near Joliet and on the Kankakee River. He was a president of a Savings and Loan there. Even though they had six kids already they took us in. Part of this was so that Beverly and uncle Pat could watch over us and also was to get us away from my grandmother McNeal's attempts to take custody of us. I doubt if they ever really knew where we went to.

There was plenty of good and some bad to go with living with uncle Pat and at Beverly. Beverly was not a nurturing person. She was pretty harsh as was uncle Pat when he was home. To their credit they did not show any favoritism toward us or their own children. They treated us all the same. That being said it did lead to more spankings than I had been used to growing up. Cousin John had little crazy streak in him and I would get in trouble trying to keep up with him. Poor Bob was a few years younger and always got hurt trying to keep up with cousin John. It was during this time that I became a Cub fan. They only play day games in Wrigley back then and their own games were always on TV.

My sister and I did not really enjoy the move at first but I began to appreciate having cousins near my age. My sister spent time with the older girls Mary and Ruthie.she also continued to be the caregiver for my brother Joe.

One of my strongest memories from that time is how sad I was at Christmas. My dad could not get there until after Christmas and we really didn't get many gifts because money was tight in my uncle Pat's home. My cousins really didn't get a lot and then when my dad came it was a little awkward because we got some pretty cool presents usually. I got a Star Trek Enterprise model that had lights in it. I wasn't able to put it together myself so I had to wait for my dad's next visit so he could help me. I ended up not waiting and trying myself.. I got it put together but I used to much glue and the lights never worked correctly. It was pretty cool though and I would pretend like I was going from one planet to another star system just like on TV!

Well that's enough for today I will post more later.