50 Days of Remembering 50 Years Day #8

Family

To say being an only child to marrying into a family of originally 13 kids was a shock to the system, is to say the least. What a different upbringing we had. I had my own bedroom and didn't have to share my toys or belongings. George reminds us that he celebrated when someone moved out of his bed. 

I did have some neighborhood kids to play with, but he constantly had someone around. He was into sports. I was into inside hobbies like writing, reading, stamp collecting, pen palling, piano playing, etc. 

George's family often had picnics at People's Forest. Everyone brought something to share and there was always a softball game. Now as a child, baseball gave me angst. First, I was lefthanded and I hated how they yelled, "Lefty" at school when I got up to bat and everyone shifted because of me. It wasn't really a disparagement against me. It was just warning the team which way the ball might go--big joke, that would be if I hit the ball. Then there was the stigma of being Casey at the bat, like the poem. So, playing softball with the family should have been fun but just gave me anxiety.

I'm going to be frank here. What gave me worse anxiety, was the different sense of humor that his family had. I led a naive and simple life and I often felt embarrassed by my naivety.

The first picnic I went to was at his sister's house and this picture was taken of us there. 
 

I pictured a big family to be like the Waltons, not in this case. I had often been disappointed not having any siblings, but also not having any nieces or nephews. Now when I finally got them, there were too many to have special quality time with and their ages were closer to mine, in many cases. I learned all families are different. As I said before, my family was a simple triangle of three. I have no clue what shape his family is, but the connecting lines are not as straight as my family. I had to learn the dynamics of this big family. 

George's sister, Ellie was the first to have us over for dinner and we also went to the horse races up in Greenfield with them.

George was treated like a son by my parents and he didn't feel right that my parents would give to him just as equally as to me. They adopted him. That's how my parents were. I think if I were to describe the dynamics, it wouldn't be that our triangle became a square but George was part of my vertex. He joined our triangle.