Being the first child, much of what I did before my sister
Marilyn was old enough to talk escaped my parents’ scrutiny.
They were not sure how children should act, and since I
was the first grandchild as well for my father’s family, I was
treated as a deity who could do no wrong. If I did, it was
overlooked, or called “cute.” That all changed when Marilyn was able to
point out some of my antics that they had overlooked, which they often
ignored to avoid having me throw a tantrum. I was relatively young
when I discovered that I could control my parents by lying on the floor
and screaming. They were quick learners, and in a very short period of
time, they learned that it was not worth the effort to try to control me, as
it did them no good and seemed to aggravate me.
Unfortunately for me, as our family expanded, they discovered that
not all children acted as I did, and that parents were expected to control
them. As Marilyn would exclaim, “It’s his fault,” I would reply even
louder, “It is not my fault. You left me unsupervised.” Even I knew I
needed to be watched. Left to my own devices, something was bound to
go wrong, as I always pushed things to the point where disaster would
be inevitable. I wouldn’t stop playing with a knife until it pierced some
part of my body. As I went into the house with blood dripping, I could
usually hear someone saying, “Who left him unsupervised?”
The remarkable thing about this phenomenon is that even today, almost
80 years later, people keep saying, “Don’t leave him unsupervised.”
Margaret tries her best, my sister Martha and brother Melvin try to share
the responsibility, but they can’t be here all the time, and that is when
someone is bound to blurt out, “Why did they let him go unsupervised?”
Fortunately, now most of my blunders are strictly verbal, and those
around me understand that when I begin to speak, no one knows exactly
what will come out, but that there is little hope that I will think before I
speak. I know others have a little voice in their heads that tells them when
they should consider holding back the words they are about to say. I have
never had such a voice, so I tend not to ponder on what I am about to say
and just blurt it out. Usually, I am too busy chuckling about how clever
what I say will be to think of whom it might offend. Unfortunately, not
everyone has my sense of humor, or if they do, their sense of propriety
is able to curb it.
So if I have ever said or done something that you think I should not
have said or done, remember it is not my fault, as it obviously happened
while I was “unsupervised.” Sorry, but this is just the way it is with me.
I’m not myself today and everybody has noticed the improvement 85