Road Trip IV

My 6th birthday was celebrated in the living room of my Uncle Fred's house, on Beacon Hill in Seattle. The only thing I remember of note was that I was more interested in the stuff lying around Fred's house than any presents I got, to the annoyance of my parents. I spent the most time with a coffee table book put out by Life Magazine whose title was something all encompassing like The World, The Universe, and Everything, or something like that, that displayed lots of beautiful color paintings of teaming wildlife in all sorts of periods of natural history.

I also played a lot with Fred's poker chips. I liked to stack and re-stack them, creating colored patterns, like these. I thought of each pattern as a visual drum rhythm. I've never cared for poker.

The trip back to Massachusetts seemed to go much faster than the trip out, in my memory. I think that's because we were followed east by a storm that meant there was little to look at but rain washing down the windows and windshield wiper action for hours at a time. I'm sure it all went very slowly while it was happening, but looking back on it there were no outstanding events to spread the time out.

When we got back to Fort Devens the weather cleared. My parents were pretty disgusted.

It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned anything about sexual abuse during the trip. People might get the impression that a moratorium was called. Actually, since I still needed assistance dressing and undressing, and my Mother insisted on giving me baths, there were the same opportunities there were at home. So nothing really changed. There were no long distressing sessions because my father was generally in the next room and would hear if I cried out. But there was still a lot of fleeting inappropriate touching.

Tending to Mom's Honor

My parents had to throw parties for the sake of my Father's career, a couple of times a year. The parties always featured cocktails and gin.

With all the noise from these affairs, which were held in the Sun Porch just off my room, it was natural that I'd be kept awake and sooner or later think I needed something, like water, or an assurance that it would be all over soon.

So on one occasion I came out of my room, hoping to get a glass of water, and I found a roomful of adults in various degrees of nakedness. There was a man wearing boxers, a women wearing underpants and a bra. My Father still had his undershirt and shorts and shoes and socks. Had I known that they had been playing strip poker, I would have known that Dad was having a relatively lucky night, with the cards.

Then I saw my Mother. She was completely naked. She was sitting in the sofa with her legs crossed smoking a cigarette and drinking a gin and tonic. I was horrified, and told her she should put some clothes on.

Her answer was to lean forward and blow smoke in my face. One of the men told her it wasn't right, and she told him to mind his own business. I went to bed, forgetting that I was ever thirsty.