Grace Marie Edinger

She had sat me up on the sink, where she stood washing dishes. I was five years old and curious about everything. I asked questions, she answered as best she could, the questions of a five year old do not really require an answer. At that age everything is new and exciting or just scary. After a while she took my hand and traced the outline on the wall behind the sink. She told me would be there forever. For her, it was. She died the next year before I had even started going to school. That is the only real clear memory I have of my mother. I know I always felt safe when she was near me. It was a long time before I felt safe again..
Things were tough in those days. It was 1934 and America was in the middle of the great depression. Franklin Roosevelt was elected President two years before and was just beginning to get a grip on our nations agony. Most men had no work and no hope. Roosevelt said we were beginning "The New Deal". This was probably the greatest example of visionary thought ever attempted by a nation in chaos. With the courage that only great men process, he put America back to work. He began the WPA (Works progress administration) to build highways. the CCC
(citizens conservation corporation ) to clear our natural forests of debris and parasitic vegetation. A new America was in it's infancy. But that meant little to our family, we had been reduced to a father and four small children. Extreme measures were needed, and our extended family reached out to help. My sister Delores was the oldest of the children, she was twelve and needed an environment that would protect a pre-teen girl. She was taken into the home of my Grandparents in a small country town, Jacksonville Ohio. It was a good home for her and she remained there until after she married. Brother George, (Two years old) went with Aunt Melvina and Uncle John Sauser. A strong family with three daughters and a wonderful place to grow into manhood. Sister Lenora, two years younger than I, remained with me and Dad for a year or so then she too moved into another aunt and uncles home. Uncle Hap and Aunt Fern never had a bad day. The Power of Positive Thinking was just as natural as breathing to them, and they loved Lenora as one of their own.
That left Dad and me, living alone at 310 Reeb Ave. Columbus ,Ohio. We lived next to Reeb Ave. elementary school, my grade-school through the sixth grade. Then on to Barrett Jr. high school. This school was located diagonally across from where my sister Lenora lived with Aunt Fern and her family. I would often sit in front of the school-house and watch them play. 'They never knew how much I wanted to join them'. The rules were that I go straight home, I often broke that rule. There was nothing wrong at home. Dad did his best to be a Mom and Dad to me, but that was impossible. Dad worked so much I only had myself for company. I was a lonely boy and knew there was something wrong, I just did not know what it was. I always liked school, but I did not look like the other kids. They were clean and their clothes were pressed. They had Moms, I had a pretend Mom. At some point I just did not go home. Pop would find me and take me back I would leave again soon, after awhile he quit trying. If he passed me on the street he would honk his horn or pretend he did not see me. This must have been horible for him, but he never said so. I'm not sure how I lived for the next few years. I went to school, hung around the library until it closed and sometimes I hid out inside and spent the night I loved the library, all of the knowledge in the world in one place, what a concept. I still feel the same way. I worked whenever I could find someone willing to hire an unkempt waif. I don't remember being hungry, but I don't remember a lot of that period of my life. I walked to Grandmas a few times a year. (Those were the best times.) I could see and play with my brother and swim in Sunday Creek. Damn, that was so good. Fritz, June and Inez, (George's adopted sisters all seemed to like me,) and I liked them.
Uncle John Sauser liked classical music and I enjoyed listening with him on the radio. As far as I know; no one else in our family cared too much for the classics. One school semester I stayed at Aunt Zoas house near McArthur Ohio. Her son John Jenkins was older but a good buddy. He taught me to walk on my hands. (good to know, but otherwise useless). I was walking down the
street one day (on my feet) when I had just turned sixteen and spotted a place called "Fort Hayes." It looked clean and neat, a big sign hung outside that said 'ENLIST NOW'. So I did. But that's another group of stories. I have always missed my Mother. I wonder how it would have been, to be like it was intended to be. I bet it would have been great.
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