Archibald Brothers Part 5

PARENT PICK UP

Archibald Brothers

Episode 5

Most children who live at an orphanage dream of the day when a kind adult will walk through the door and adopt them into a family.

But when that day came for the three Archibald boys, it was their own biological father who came to take them away.

Unlike the other orphaned kids at Buckner Children’s Home, the Archibalds - Ken, Mike, and Richard - had parents. And this chapter of their story reunites them, not with their father, but with their long-lost mother.

RA Yeah and I guess they probably just had our suitcase from Buckner and just went straight from there to the Continental Trailways and dad said your bus leaves at this time see you guys

KA Oh so you didn’t go back to Margo

MA No

KA You went to Arkansas

KELLY

Welcome to an episode of Qavah that highlights a sweet time in the Archibald boys’ lives.

KELLY

(Music: Theme music)

KA So y’all got on a bus and went to Arkansas 

MA we did 

KA and where did you go to

MA Little rock 

we lived with aunt Mary we didn’t it wasn’t like we were living there was it

RA Well I don’t think it was a no I don’t I think it was temporary 

HOP ON A BUS

KELLY

Restructuring your memory can be hard when you’ve lived in as many places as the Archibalds. From what they can remember, Ken, Mike, and Richard were passed back and forth between their Aunt Mary and their mother, Joy, in Arkansas for a while.

To the boys, Arkansas was like Beverly Hills. Their Aunt Mary lived right by the Arkansas River, where they would watch huge boats go by. And their mom lived and worked at the nearby Albert Pike Hotel.

MA That she had the restaurant downstairs and that’s where she worked

RA Worked at the café and we had she had a room I guess that was part of what they gave her for work and she had a boyfriend Clarke and that was a pretty neat place me and Mike had pretty good time right around that place I mean because it was when I see the shining it kind of reminds me of it it’s like it had different levels of coarse but there was a man like each level had a balcony over or you can look in the middle and it just seems so fancy to me and it probably kind of was to me it seemed real fancy and we would go over to Osco’s little five and dime cross street and we were we were kind of walk out with some Batman and robin dollars and we didn’t have any money but we got em 

MA You see Buckner had done us well

KA You learned a lot

MA Yeah we did

RA And we would you know because they had the capes and we would like throw them off the balcony and watch them fly down to the ground

MA No consideration whether it would land on some on some old man’s head

RA no but those are fond good memories

KELLY

The time eventually came for the boys to leave Arkansas, but they took these memories with them. Their mother was moving to East Dallas, and their father was living in an apartment alone while he was separated from their stepmother Helen for a time. 

Neither one of their parents, however, could take the boys into their home. Mike’s and Richard’s memories are a little fuzzy during this time period, but they know that their mother was still struggling with her mental health, and there was something going on in their dad’s relationship with Helen.

So they went to live with their uncle.

MA Well you know we had we come back from Little Rock that summer I don’t do you remember them giving it another go for us to be at Margo

RA I don’t remember we may have gone straight to LD and Carla’s 

MA I think we did

RA I do too

MA We went straight to live with them in Rockwall’s trailer house

KA With your dad‘s oldest brother and his wife

MA You got it

KA And family so you lived in Rockwall and went to school there

RA Yeah I was in third grade Mike was in fifth grade

KA OK and that’s when you had Mrs. Huffaker right

MA yes

KA Who is your teacher

RA I don’t know who my teacher was but I was in the elementary school when it was open concept you know like it was all

opened

KA Yes I remember that

MA Man I yeah I remember starting the school right there in Rockwall 

KELLY

Rockwall wasn’t too far from their previous home in Mesquite. On Thanksgiving break, they went to visit their mom at her new place in East Dallas.

STRUGGLE WITH ADDICTION

MA  mom still struggled with addiction she could still have mood swings and not necessarily where I was scared anymore but anyway we gave it a go over in East Dallas really we’re over swiss avenue area over not far from Baylor hospital  We’re living in and it’s just a two-story complex remember it being long maybe 10 unites on the top in the in the very middle there be a stairway they would let you go up to the upper part and mom had her 66 model Ford falcon it was white and we would we would stay with her at these apartments it had of been some kind of holiday time because I don’t remember checking into any school when we were living with mom so it was like an extended amount of time we were it had I’m not for sure

KA It was a break from school 

MA It was a break and we were staying with mom and Rich remember just all the other kids and we were just we would literally get a what a coke can 

RA I think so yeah

MA. It was a Coke can that we would just kind of squeeze and we would have that parking lot it wasn’t a very big parking lot but we were play like that like Mexican kids when we started learning a few at least one more 

pasala 

RA pasala 

MA Pass a law that man give me the dogone coke can I wanna shoot so passela pasela 

RA And we kick it like soccer

MA Oh yeah yeah

RA so yeah I guess it was soccer again

KELLY

The familiarity of being back in Texas was soon interrupted by an unfamiliar figure.

MA Well I remember this waking at one day I knew something was kind of weird when mom of course she had this we were I guess on the couch and they had their own bedroom OK so I’m not calling this guy dad

KA Who is they

MA Paul

KA. OK so there’s someone named Paul that lived in the apartment as well

MA Mom‘s boyfriend oh crap me they got married

RA I think they might have 

MA I think they got married rich I think I should’ve been callin him pops Something other than Paul maybe his name was Raul and Paul I don’t know man 

mom would go to work and Paul would go to work he was I don’t remember ever communicate with this person do you

RA. No I don’t

MA But I don’t remember ever being scared of him

RA. No we neither he was just kinda didn’t bother us

MA Yeah I thought you know dad’s got this other maniac how bad can mom’s maniac be

RA He was fine he wasn’t like overly friendly but he wasn’t mean

MA No so we would just play soccer now

RA But I don’t know how I don’t know what are we in the car when she got

MA. Yes so mom was needing I don’t know what the pill was

KA. some Medication 

MA Darvocet preluden I remember all the names that she said she had to have and so we went down Gaston to like a Motts pharmacy where you actually pulled off of Gaston right up against the curb to  park so when you were backing out you were backing out into a full Street and I remember mom saying stay in the car I’m just gonna be a second and I remember her going in and I remember it being like a minute or two maybe longer and she came running out and saying let’s go let’s go let’s go let’s go mom cranked the car up backed out she started booking and next thing I know I see the cops behind us and we are full throttle downtown Dallas my mom just wheeling that falcon everywhere she could go

RA Steve McQueen bullet

MA Steve McQueen baby eventually though she pulled over and they arrested her for she had written a false prescription a trick that she had done many times but the doctor that she had used she actually had stolen his prescription pad mom could emulate anything well it just so happened that that doctor had died a month before and the pharmacist who obviously knew this doctor said this ain’t right and called the police You know today they probably say get man get that out of here what are you doing she came running out and she got arrested in the cops put I believe it was the three of us maybe just me and you I don’t remember

RA I don’t remember Ken being there

MA I don’t either

JUVENILE DETETION

KELLY

Cops, drugs, and car chases . . . the Archibald boys were back to their normal.

RA I just I have one memory of that place and that’s it

MA. So the cops were taking us I remember they had the Dallas cowboy game on Thanksgiving on the radio

RA oh the cops did

MA. The cops had the game on the radio

KA. So you and it was Thanksgiving day and he went to a shelter of some sort

MA. It was it was yeah in Dallas children’s shelters when I remembered to be a juvenile shelter or whatever

KA Yeah well that’s an intense Thanksgiving not a good one

RA No and so I guess but yeah it was there did the dude try to give you a bath too

8/1 1:00

RA I mean he did give me a bath and was kind of weird with me so maybe that just took over everything else because that’s really all I remember

KA because that was creepy

RA Because that was creepy but I have no it’s like it’s just blank

KA do you remember your mom getting arrested

RA No

KA OK WOW

RA I don’t know that’s just gone I don’t remember the police car I don’t remember riding in a police car I just remember pass along to you I’m in this bathtub in the shelter I don’t then I don’t remember anybody getting us they obviously did but I don’t

KA Somebody picked you up do you remember who picked you up

MA yeah my dad and Helen did and they look like they were very festive they were very up in a great mood they’re obviously getting along very well Helen was very nice come on boys we’re going to go home

KELLY

After this brief visit to the juvenile shelter, they barely evaded going home with Helen. Their father was repairing his relationship with Helen, but he decided to let the boys live by themselves while he was on the road as a trucker.

LIVING ALONE

MA we were in another trailer house and dad was still trucking so it’s pretty much Ken me and Richard

KA whoa by yourselves

MA By our selves

Dad would leave us money or he would buy us groceries there was no where we could go to a store nearby us

KA NO

MA Ken didn’t have a license

KA No there is nothing out there

KELLY

And boy, did they have a ball!

RA But but and I do think that’s at the time we were at the trailer house there was no one with us and I was in school but I don’t know how much we went I remember signing dad’s name on my report card

MA Ken did some finagling for us to

RA Yeah and I mean we had those remember those they weren’t Encyclopaedia Britannica but we had those books do you have any idea what I’m talking about they were hardbound books and they were like adventure things you could do and we would build like little plywood like little boats out of just I don’t know where we got the hammer and nails and wood that Rockwall states there was lying around that and we will try to make things I would out of the books were showing so that was my school and listen to Charlie Rich behind closed doors

MA Yeah yeah

RA On dad‘s box he had me maybe But I don’t know

MA I think he won it in like a raffle

RA He want it OK it was pretty cool record player

MA It had a radio inside of it to you open that type thing and had a radio or it had that the LP player

KA How did you function how did you like if you have no way to get food

RA I’m sure we had some canned food

MA He left as he left us with food

RA The kind of frozen dinners that WHEN IT wAS all foil

MA yeah TV dinner full throttle

RA TV dinner

KA OK 

MA I can’t remember speaking of school OK this is monumental so this would’ve been toward the end of 75 1975 so we’re getting close to summer it’s probably April OK I am in dude I think I’m in six grade 

RA April 1975 you’re probably in fifth grade

MA Fifth grade OK

RA 72,73,73,75 yeah you would’ve been in fifth grade

MA Anyway so our class in our class had the highest attended class of the fifth grade and so we got to go to sandy lake park

KA OH YES

MA Yeah and what was so interesting about it though is that eventually I know I got caught because I had skipped 13 days in a row literally I did not go to school for almost 3 weeks and dad found out about it and he he came in from a road trip and whatever he got there you know dad would always threaten us to bust your butt you’re going to get it wait till we get home you know it was almost like mental terrorism 

 you know dad’s gonna

RA That was the worst 

MA It was man

RA It’s like just do it

MA Just do it just get it over with and I remember dad never spank me but he got me to school that next day and that very next day that I walked in after being out for 14 days was the day we went to Sandy Lake

KA To Sandy Lake

MA And I remember walking in there go on everybody l ready once again  Great job on having the highest attendance and I’m just sitting there I’m high-fiving I don’t think they’ve had five been invented yet but I am high-fiving everybody the whole class down

RA The free rider

MA I enjoyed my day at sandy lake park

KA That’s funny good stuff right

MOVED AGAIN

KELLY

After some time, they moved into a house with their father in Rockwall, on Perch Street.

RA OK  I think he just said we’re gonna get out of the trailer I’m sure he was renting it at because he didn’t own it and then we went to the house and this is the first time other than Hula that we got to live in a house with dad other than you know Margo but where it was just us I think that’s when he brought in Debbie

RA That’s the first time I remember her

KA So who’s Debbie

RA. Debbie I don’t know where dad met or found Debbie but she was a live-in maid and I think they had kind of a relationship but she would basically take him to the industrial or wherever he would pick up his truck to go on his long haul truck driving because she kept the truck the pick up and she would take care of us do things with us she was probably what 21  I’m guessing 22,23

MA  yeah she was

RA she was young probably not much older than Ken I mean quite a bit but you know not much

KA she was an adult

RA she was an adult but young and she took us to see Jaws I remember that anyway that was good

RA And with Debbie there was some structure it was

KA. You did go to school when she was there

MA Whenever we left the trailer I think we went right to perch

RA in that house that was a cool house that was a nice time from me it was a nice time at school I love school Rockwall school was great Debbie was tremendous

MA. And I can literally remember being in that little living room on perch when she came in and that’s where dad was we were talking to her and literally he was trying to do all the right things by having someone come in we would meet em and whatever I do remember she had shorts that I think covered her middle portion of her buttoCKS

RA maybe I remember thinking she was very pretty

MA Richards a little younger than I

RA I’m third grade she was a little bit she’s pretty 

MA so yeah she did that She just took care of us we didn’t have any really more school events where we were not going to school

KHA The second that we got to Rockwall uh basketball season had already started just they were just practicing because it was and I was in PE and coach wisdom was our PE teacher and we just played pick up basketball that’s all we did coach wisdom was I was a really good basketball player and I was I could I could challenge him and so I was always the captain of the kids team and he he picked the jumpy kids so it made the best kids play him and and the champ kids and he just told me he said you need to you you need to play basketball and so coach Blithe was our head coach uh and uh  uh uh i’m sorry his name was Coach bland. And uh so Coach Wisdom got me hooked up with Coach bland and I remember uh it’s as if he knew where I had been and uh uh because I told him in seventh grade I played at Avery and then I had just played at Buckner and the kids didn’t have a clue I just remember him being very encouraging and he would take me home sometimes in his own car after basketball practice to Perch

RA I don’t know if Debbie maybe wanted to do something more than just be a nanny or something because then Ann Debbie’s mom became our live in

KA Were you still on perch

RA No she was our live in on Ridgeview in Mesquite right off of Galloway in Ridgeview just across 80 on the south Mesquite side

KA So you’ve change schools again

MA We hadn’t gotten into school but we’re about to yes because we finish Rockwall

KA And then you came to another school in Mesquite that is the third Mesquite school

MA Did you tell who Ann was 

KA Debbie‘s mom

RA Debbie‘s mom so I guess that’s how dad found Ann and of course there was no relationship like that with in between dad and AN but Ann was not Debbie but she was she was OK you know

MA What do you mean she’s OK

RA Well I really like Debbie I mean she was like

MA well Debbie was

RA She was the coolest

MA Debbie was young dad to me was old I know he would’ve been you know 33,34 years old but she was 21 so what started off as a made relationship turned into something else and then I don’t want you to be you’re my girlfriend I don’t want you to be my maid and so then and starts becoming the one mom can do this and next thing you know Ann is there and but she was great

RA OK I mean I didn’t she just wasn’t Debbie to me that’s all that’s fine

RA And she had snakes we had pet snakes and you know you get them mice at the town east mall at that little pet store I guess town East mall was there and we get to watch them remember we watched it we want to stay up and watch the snake get the mouse

MA Oh yeah man and it was a king snake so other words it would trap the mouse and it would wrap around it and just strangle it

KA. Like a king cobra

MA Yeah I need to see the little mouse just ohhh

KA ohhh

MA and we were going to eat our popcorn just watching the show it was great and then there it would turn

RA And its mouth would open wide enough to take in the mouse and then it would just slowly yea

MA And you’d say like a mouse in the middle of a snake a big hump there

KA nuhuh

RA Anyway that was neat and she got it and there was a pool in the middle of that this was like a townhouse is what it was so it was people it was like apartment but not really and there’s a pool in the middle and we remember one of the pool I ruined a few mesquite public library books at that pool

MA did you

RA Yes

MA Because that library wasn’t far so we could literally walk from

RA It was quite a walk but we could do it and we did it

MA All the way to Grubb Street to go to mesquite public library we had our own card

I’d get Encyclopedia Brown you would get whatever and I didn’t know you had trashed some books in there

RA I didn’t trash them I remember stressing out because I got them all wet and then I had them take them back to the library but I don’t think anything ever happened to it

KA You probably have like $1000 fee

MA I remember that pool though after seeing Jaws

RA  me too

MA And I am like how could there be a possibility that a 25 foot great white shark would make it through some sort of water system and be in this but I’m looking for  shadows

RA We knew it did

KA yes

MA Definitely even though it had a light and there was really we could be out there swimming and wouldn’t care but I was going to jump in the water in the daylight much less in the night time

RA yeah 

KELLY

After parenting themselves at the trailer home, the boys got to spend some time being children again. Debbie and Anne functioned as their temporary mother and grandmother. As things got more serious between Debbie and Mr. Archibald, though, Helen eventually caught wind of it.

KA So you’re cruising along with Anne and your dad at some point says I’m getting married or I got married or something

Do you remember that at all

RA I remember that thing I told you about about there being some gathering and OK were married and I guess

MA But before we get there we had perhaps the greatest run of all time

KA OK

MA Because not only had we been in the trailer we had been in the house now we’re in Ridgeview and at this time Helen comes up with all her kids and this is back in the day when the CB radio was popular of course dad had one but Helen had one on that brome blue braughm

RA she did

MA And it had a PA on it and I remember Richard pulling up all of them or like where did these people coming from and he’s going Brrr Dirk that was his term for a big dick he would say Brrr Dirk as speaking to

RA Referring to me

MA To Richard I don’t know that that was they would just go out I mean it’s kind a like Larry going I’m your boy and Helen saying yeah boy and would just go Brrrr Dirk

And I’m like and so they all show up and it’s not there Debbie is not there my dad’s they’re in a big fight happens in that back carport area it was a fight like this fight but they were fighting back-and-forth and I’m like oh I don’t wanna go back I remember that you know how every apartment area has this thing that says this is the manager this is the leasing office whatever it was a younger couple that live there and they came walking out and I was smart enough at this time to know that there was a sign that said no trespassing and I remember they walked out and went to him and said see that lady they are trespassing and that guy just said your dads obviously going to work it out and that sort of thing but I do not believe that we went back to them at that time that would’ve been summer of 75 we left Ridgeview and we went to 457

KA So you moved it well yet again did you change schools again

RA No

KA So you’re in the same state you have that continuity are you with and still in these apartments

MA RA no

KA So it’s just three boys and your dad is traveling

RA yes he may have gotten a dispatch job I don’t remember

MA I don’t remember him being there a lot and doing a lot with us especially during that moving from Ridgeview during the summer over to Highland Village during the summer I remember my 12th birthday

KA September 

MA I would’ve received  He bought me he didn’t Buy em he exchange money for him he gave me like I swear it was like 30 to 40 Bicentennial quarters on the back it had 1776 to 1976 and I remember there was a pool right out So we’re on the second floor walk down some steps and there’s a swimming pool maybe it was a little bit further down but there was always a Coke machine there in exactly $.25 and so as much as I was enamored having all these these quarters in my drawer when I we get Thursday man we were just reach in that drawer get that order and we would go and get us a soda

RA. Right I probably kiped a few of your quarters Because I didn’t want to use those quarter for that machine is they were special orders to me

KA Yeah they were special

RA I thought they were so neat I don’t know why but I did was there a guy named Eddie a blonde haired nah it doesn’t matter

KA So was there anything in particular you remember about living in the apartment complex

MA Just Connie Dalton

RA The only thing I remember about 457 was two really pretty girls

MA So it mean it was amazing how just pretty women followed us

KA chick magnets

MA Of course that pool I could literally be in my bedroom window looking out while they were swimming

RA And they knew what kind of suit to wear

MA Yes they did

KA oh my gosh you were in what grades

RA Fourth and sixth

MA And I wasn’t even the one that was all hot and sweaty Rich in fourth grade Rich get back door put your pants on for crying out loud

KELLY

With all of this moving around to different homes, Mike and Richard use each year’s Thanksgiving to anchor their memories. They recall their father entering a new relationship in 1975.

MA During all of this once again it’s a sports story the Cowboys were making the greatest football season they’ve ever had I mean they lost the Super Bowl that year but but they were not supposed to do anything that time when they were playing the Redskins on that Thanksgiving we were in the truck they won that game but they didn’t make the playoffs for the first time ever so there was no hope for him that next year but oh what a run that was dad got a legit girlfriend I mean it wasn’t like it was a 21-year-old maid or it was Helen what was her name

RA Cathy 

MA Cathy oh Cathy

RA She worked at the truck place she was a dispatcher or something

MA Absolutely so is dad was working for East Texas motor freight or at this time I don’t think he was driving he might’ve been doing a little bit of both but he was trying to settle down so he could take care of the boy us but she had another apartment kind a like over off military Parkway over where near West Mesquite is today and may be a little bit further west on scyene but I remember we actually went on a trip with her and dad me Ken and Richard

RA And if we take her Chrysler Córdoba

MA We took her Chrysler Córdoba and dad said look at this sun watch this you see this now watch this and he like took his leg up and said look look and he’s flipping his foot back in this car still go in the same space

KA Cruise control

MA It was the first car that ever had cruise control it was so comfortable

RA Yeah that was a cool cool car I remember that

MA We went to Laredo Texas

KA good Gracious 

RA And then we crossed into Nuevo Laredo we got boots there

MA Yes and I got a one of those you could kind a like puppet little Spanish guy

KA Marionette wow that is far

MA We would go to her apartment we would have a Sunday it wasn’t like after church but we go on a Sunday when the Cowboys would play football would watch them on CBS with  Who was it

RA Phyllis George

MA Phyllis George Chris Musburgee Jimmy the Greek herv cross just the whole crew

MA And we would have food and just watch during that magical 75 football season and I thought this this is this is going to be the good mom right here

KA So that was a good season for you

MA It was a real good season 

KA In more ways than one

MA yes very good

KA And then something changed

RA Yeah I don’t know what happened if we when we left 457 do we go back back to Helen’s

MA We went back to Helen’s and I’m thinking we we went back to Helen’s once again during the Christmas holidays and then they were married sometime

KA December 31

RA Oh right OK yeah that would make some sense yeah and that was that was such a bummer because I had me for me I again loved school I have friends 

KA your dad and Helen remarried on New Year’s eve and 75 so so you go back into that home so what was it like back into the mess

RA I guess we did go back

MA  we did

RA Because you went to did you go to Range at 6 grade

MA I did I did we were in the holiday. So it was gonna be a couple hours maybe a week or so before we be back at it gosh Rich it was so many different schools we went to I mean between Avery for like a week or a month and then into Buckner and going to that school for a while and then coming out this summer and then we went back to Rockwall back to Ridgeview during the summer then back to all Mesquite I mean we were literally I don’t know how you did so well in school I know I didn’t I would miss whatever one particular school district would be teaching mathematics primarily. I do remember that fall of 75 as Kelly mentioned that being just a beautiful time

RA And I think we actually went to school

MA we did

RA I think I went to school 

MA I didn’t cut 13 straight days

back in my class it was kind of weird because when we would go either back to Rockwall or we would go back to IN Range it was kind a like oh y’all are back do you know everyone kind a new is

RA and for me it was not a good thing because I was an outcast and I N range and Helen made sure of it where I had been able to go back to using Richard you know now I had to go back to being dick and it was just it was an identity that was it was like here’s your identity here here’s your identity here and it was it was just weird

MA Went straight back to the absolute abuse

RA Yeah with everything starting again the boogers that I was getting to where I didn’t wet the bed and in the mornings Larry would come get in my bed and Pee in it and it was every morning so I still wet the bed and I still had to deal with all the sheets and all that stuff it was just weird and then I remember you know the abuse from them started back or never went on they let me in a closet and this was I think it was Richard‘s closet 

MA it was

RA it was on side of the big room and I just whipped  it out and urinated all over it

MA Inside his closet

RA Yeah I said OK I’ll stay in you know because now we had had a little bit of a taste of what normal life and a little success I guess you call it and so I I didn’t have a choice I couldn’t really fight back because of the size differences and age difference but there’s a little bit more spunk maybe

KA You develop some confidence away from

them

RA Right

KA  and brought that back and they probably didn’t like that confident I would imagine 

KELLY

The boys returned to the darkness and chaos of Helen’s home on Margo Street. But they tried to find the bright spots in that darkness. Football at I.N. Range school was one of them.

MA and you were playing football I was playing football for the I guess they were the Vikings

RA. It was a Vikings over there

MA yeah so I was in six grade playing for that team before we go to junior high and start getting real about it and you were you were doing your thing and you were good at it I remember dad taking us to one of your games you actually played an All-Star game do you remember that

RA. I did at Wilkinson

MA OK yeah absolutely

RA. At the stadium and I got to run the ball

MA You were great

RA yeah it was good

MA I mean for you to always fall and be as umcoordinated you were just playing

RA I could actually stand up on the field

MA It was amazing to me

KA Do you remember these things Richard

RA oh these were this is like when I go out in the grass in the fall there’s a smell and I am on that field that went in the Wylie field when I played for Rockwall and scored my first touchdown in Wylie yeah I remember these things well

RA  so yeah you know it’s like we’re you weren’t an outcast you know we were kind of that they are kind of the cool kids I don’t know it was just good and there was

MA I don’t remember any struggles with school I mean like somehow things were like I said it was the greatest run solo with dad

RA And then that just the idea of this whole ceremony at this church even at my age was like just for the kids OK this is weird and of course I would’ve thought that anyway cause I just would’ve been sick that I was going back so yeah I guess that was the 75-76 school year I would’ve still been in fourth grade so I went back to range you would’ve been still in sixth

MA I had yeah we were back at range

RA Do you know who you had in sixth grade

MA miss Ivy I think same teacher that James and Ken had before and once again Sally Rogers who had a crush on was 

MA and then we move back in because they may have been married on the 3st but we didn’t move in right at that time so it was and it was just so we were lavishing our life and ow we found ourselves languishing right where we were. 

MA Dad was not going to truck drive anymore boys I’m gonna get a job as a dispatcher and I’m gonna be home for yet man he made a legitimate effort

KA oh wow

RA And I don’t remember like really getting in trouble then like we were good as far as the best I can remember which is kind of a big deal I think but then and it’s all a blur to me that we actually went back but I know I went to fourth grade at Range and you went to sixth grade at Range but and I don’t have like specific detail memory of that what I remember of it it’s just that the stark difference in our life you know I went from I guess thriving to being oppressed again all and no time to being in a school where I was the outcast and made fun of after leaving Hanby where I was accepted and part of all the groups and yeah it was that was sickening to me

KA. And you had mentioned when you went back into the home this time you had confidence that you had established outside of that environment so when you came back it seem to of been harder because they sense that

RA maybe because I remember I would start to challenge them and then the hammer would come down and so it was like OK that’s I realized I’m not ready not able to really do that yet but in my mind I was still thinking one of these days so but like I don’t even remember what happen it’s almost like they’re the kind of disappointment that went along with going back there and then restarting and it was just like like you hold the needle off the record and put it all back onto the beginning again and it was just more the same and it was just kind of repetitive and it now in my head I can’t really place because it was all the same stuff

KELLY

Their hope of succeeding at school, having friends, and belonging with their peers vanished. And so did their hope of having a father in the home with them.

KA OK he went back on the road

MA He’s back on the road

KA OK

MA And I swear to you that I don’t know if that played any in his decision we can do this again I don’t know why he would give up on at Kathy maybe or whatever the relationships he had But whatever Drew Helen back to him or her under his grasp I don’t know if he didn’t wanna do that so he could go back to driving  and somebody because he hated it  he hated working in a chair I remember one time he came home and he goes this is what my job is like any held up a thing of Irish Spring deodorant or whatever it was and I guess this is my life now I want want want somebody thinks I stick in my chair because when I got to work it was laying in my chair I mean he just despise the idea that he was calling other truckers and saying yeah this dispatch we’re going to have you do a run to Sacramento California and dad was like I’m always other side of that I’d be getting the calls and now he’s having to call these people he loves being on the road that’s just what he liked and maybe Helen was going to supply some sort of new arrangement she was going to do that better I don’t know but we never and think let’s give this another shot

RA No we never we knew

MA  We knew exactly

Like you said if you lifted up that needle inserted that same tooth over again I was going to have the same exact reason I never thought it would be what it ended up being

KA So you went back into that environment and it’s 76 and you go through the rest of that school year and your day and your days to say is it worse is it worse

RA I don’t remember I don’t I know that there was a time when I had grown up a little bit and become a person and Helen did not like it and would tell me tell me things that I’m not as good as I think I am or I am not going out or make fun of me for having friends but I just because I still wanted to have contact with people that I knew from 

MA old mesquite

RA I made good friends

KA  right

RA. It was pretty bad in terms of just making fun of me for having friends and saying you know that this is really what you’re like you’re an outcast and nobody really likes you that’s not

MA Yeah welcome back to reality

RA I don’t know house to say it welcome back to what is real and I don’t know win that it’s confusing because really I mean they got remarried and I think I knew that at the time because I had that little silly ceremony thing

RA But I think it was turmoil from then on like I don’t mean just for us I mean constant between them because there is separation together separation together that’s why we lived all these different places

MA Well I do know that we were older to your point we experience the greatest father we never had realized that I can remember as a growing kid and I remember it definitely being a harder pill to swallow back in the number one  when I’m older now so standing at the table while I’m eating when I was younger didn’t OK we just don’t have enough but now as I’m older I could say he does some other people can probably stand up

KELLY

The boys had slowly climbed to the top of the rollercoaster, but now they were on the edge of the fall. Learning what was normal, what was real, and what it meant to grow up was just short of impossible during their childhood years. But they pressed on, muscling through each challenge as it came.