The changes were subtle at first and then it all began to turn. Our neighborhood was changing. People like Mrs. Brunner up the street got divorced. We’d never heard of that. We’d never heard of someone’s parents splitting up. It didn’t happen. Not that we knew anyway. When Mrs. Brunner’s husband left her, we were [...]
We spent those long summer evenings at the weekly dance in the parking lot of the local radio station. We’d get gussied up in our best second hand clothes, put on make-up in the bathroom at Anda’s house and as we walked there, we’d talk about the cute guys we might meet. Our cute guy [...]
“Whaaaaat!!!! You didn’t get him! You got the side of his house!” we shriek. I was nervous and shaking! I was afraid to see his thing! (Jacee is not Catholic but she’s afraid to go to hell too)
“Now what do we do? We have no proof! We’re doomed. He’s going to be a perv every [...]
So now, on top of everything else we had to worry about, we now faced the prospect of going to hell. We were already half the way there for reading that dirty book Wally had given us, the previous summer. We repented that one sincerely and we hoped that it had bought us a few [...]
Wally had always been a fixture on our street. He paid us no mind until we reached puberty. I was 12, Anda 13, so that made him almost 20. He felt it was his duty to “educate’ us. What did we know? He was short, fat and bowlegged. He was born on Halloween. He believed [...]
On our street, Anda, Kiss and I ruled the world. We knew who lived where from 13th street to 15th street, from Notre-Dame to Churchill streets. Our section of road was our empire, we were the queens. We were the Cumberland Street girls. That street was populated with every sort of character and we knew [...]
She sees it before I do. “Nina Boo boat!” screams Linus. They woke up unhappy and in an effort to help them feel better, I’d opened the heavy drapes and put two chairs in front of the window. They love looking out the window and watching the world. And there in the garbage was the [...]
Someone threw out an amazing box over by the bakery garbage bin. I had the babies stand at the door so they could see me, so they knew I was just going to get this box. It was huge and they watched as I dragged it into the house. They got so excited when I [...]
I hated public high school even more than private school. The cruelty, of those who were once my friends, was almost unbearable. Those girls who thought they were special. Vicious whispering made it so difficult to walk the halls and keep my head up high. Technically I did bring it on myself. I went out [...]