My Family: Chapter 60

David, me, Mom with a friend, and Dad

Dad and Mom met a new drinking couple, one weekend they decided to take both families on a picnic where Dad’s friend had a motor boat and were taking turns with it in the river but no one would ride with Dad so I said I would. Mom threw a fit and begged Dad not to take me out but he promised he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Well, he almost turned us over while Mom ran alone side the river blank; screaming for Dad to get out of the water.  After that he did bring the boat to shore because none of us could swim.  I went back to live at Aunt Hannah's to stay. 

I was 17 years old now. Dad and Mom had taken in a border and I didn't want to stay at home any more. One day, one of the waitress who worked for Aunt Hannah at the dance hall sent word there was a girl and her husband looking for me (it was my girlfriend from school). By the time I got to the dance hall they had gotten into a car and drove away. I went in and asked if my girlfriend had left me a message and the waitress said “no” because they had been there a long time. Which is why the waitress sent for me, they wanted to get them out of the dance hall. The waitress said they finally had to ask them to leave. See, my girlfriend had gotten jealous of another woman and hit her over the head with a beer bottle. I was sorry I missed them; I hadn’t seen my girlfriend in nearly two years. 

 Shirley, David, and me

I hadn’t been home for almost a year, so I didn’t know my parents had moved to Columbus, Ohio until Dad came for me a week before Christmas. He and Aunt Hannah got into an argument over me, she didn’t want me to leave and he was telling her he wasn’t leaving without me because I was old enough now to get a job and help him and Mom. Dad and Mom were now living with Aunt Eloise and her family. Mom and I got a job at the same place, Beverly Drive-In, she was a waitress inside and I was a car-hop outside. However, Mom quit after three days but I stayed there making twenty dollars a week for a year and half. Dad worked at the Ohio Wire Co which was where Aunt Eloise’s sons worked.

Alma Jean Dillow