Right around this time a kid came to live with us because he was a
problem for his family. His family had lived right through the block
from us in the mobile home park Where we lived when I was four. They
had moved to Colorado but we had remained friends with their family
and exchanged visits every couple of years. The parents were a great
big tree of a man that was a cop and twisted faced termagant that seemed like a witch to us kids. They had a crew of kids who got into all kinds of weird
trouble probably because they were home-schooled and were not really
aware of the socially acceptable methods of rebellion and acting out.
After a youth spent home schooling Rob had graduated high school
early at a young 17, tried a local junior college and dropped out
after one semester and started acting out. To help him get some
direction his parents asked my parents if he could come and live
with us learn a trade and get straitened out by my dad. That is how
when I was in ninth grade I got an older brother for two years who
was a pretty okay guy for someone who liked to have power struggles
with 12 and 14 year-olds. My brother more than I loved to power
struggle back with him so we had an arrangement of conflict that kept
a low level of hostility always in the air. We only had the four
bedrooms and my mom and dad had dibs-ed the largest one for them
selves so my little brother and I shared a room with Rob while my
older sister and younger sister shared a room and the two
'babies'(what we called my youngest brother and sister) shared the
fourth. There was always a little territorial battle going on because
Rob wanted to be king-boss of the world and we didn't recognize his
authority. He would carve out rules and regulations for his side of
the room and the room in general and then try and lecture us on what
is was like to be grown up and responsible and obey his rules. We
would impolitely decline his offer to run the joint and antagonize
him for entertainment. I think that is enough intro to know who Rob
was and how hit fits into many of the next stories so we'll fill out
the details as we go.
