I was always a tag-along. Tag-along with my Mom, (which is natural) tag-along with my aunts and uncles, tag-along with my grandparents (again, kind of natural), tag along with some random family I was sent to live with full time. Someone once told me it was like foster care, but no. My half sister, via my father, went through foster care. Foster care is like jumping from a 10 story window when the house is on fire. I always had a backup plan, someplace my mom could park me if things got out of control. Then there were the summer camps and the military schools.
As long as I was around, I had to be kept occupied and out of the way. Occasionally my presence caused some resentment, but it was rare.
I prefer, in hindsight, to look at these times as adventures; adventures that you don’t get to have unless you are tagging-along. I was hanging in the grown-up world, seeing grownups do grownup things and talk grown up talk. These times left imprints.
When I was staying with my Aunt Leonia and Uncle George, I would tag-along to Queens College at night where my aunt had a gig cooking and serving dinners for Trustees, Faculty and other big shots. I usually got put to work cleaning up, and helped myself to whatever goodies were left around. It was a rare world for me to see…fancy dining rooms with pretty furnishings and expensive silver and china. I remember seeing this gigantic contraption in the kitchen called a “Radar Range”. It was the first microwave I (and probably many other people) had ever seen. When things were done Uncle George would collect us and drive us home to their house. Onto the Grand Central Parkway and past the bright streetlights into the dark woods. Past the little brick Sunoco stations with the wreckers idling; standing by for a breakdown. I mostly stayed with them on vacations from military school and a lot of summer days and evenings as well. The memories are wide and deep. I’ve written about many of these. I will write about more.
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