Invaders of the North
It was the summer of 1973. There was a ruckus at the front door
and my mother made some excited squeals looking outside. I
pushed my way out the door and saw a truck with livestock walls
filled to the brim and overflowing with clothes, boxes,
furniture.
The livestock walls were made of worn wood, tilting out from the
rusted bed of the truck as if about to burst like a cartoon
scene all over the quiet street on which we lived.
And then like a clown car people started raining from this
truck, from on top of the pile, from under the pile, from the
cab of the truck. It was like a scene from the “Beverly
Hillbillies” television show. Approaching our house like an
invading wall of army ants they came, a very large woman
carrying an infant, a short man with a big grin and misshapen
head, and children of all ages from about 10 years old to 15
years falling behind them.
It was a shocking view and I had no idea who these people were
or what they were doing coming to our house looking so excited.
But my mother seemed to know them. The man rushed up and gave my
mother a hug as the children rushed past us, through the front
door, and started invading every nook and cranny of our home.
What was this!!
My mother introduced the man, Laramie, to me as her first
cousin. I had never heard of him in all of my 14 years. More
cousins!! I already had 14 1st cousins and now I found that I
had at least 7 more cousins here! I was not real happy about
this, as it seemed the most interesting place in the house to
all the invading juvenille cousins was my bedroom!
This covey of cousins was a peculiar band of invaders, each with
their own unique characteristics.
The youngest was the infant, Chrissy, old enough to crawl
through the house leaving a strong trail scent with a diaper
that was always in need of changing as it sagged from the weight
of moisture and occasionally fell off.
Next was the 10 year old boy, Jimmy. Jimmy seemed to want to
fight anything that moved and half of what stood still. I was
quite small for my age of 14 years, and Jimmy was actually
larger than me. The sight of an older male cousin that was
smaller than him seemed to stir up some deep-seated brute
instincts that perhaps were leftover genes from some critter in
the ancestry. I spent a good share of my time staying away from
Jimmy and his flying fists.
Next on the ladder was an 11 year old girl, Joannie. Joannie was
like a ferret seeking out any item in any lost corner she could
find and later in life would lose her teeth when a dumpster lid
would hit her on the back of her head as she pursued that
elusive piece of treasure.
After that was Millie, a 14 year old girl with very long golden
straight hair, an infectious laugh and very mature and proper
behavior. Millie was forced to be the caregiver of all the other
children except the oldest one peggy. She would chase the baby
around, try to calm Jimmy, and yank Joannie by the ankles out of
small areas. Over the next years I would observe as Millie did
almost all the house cleaning, dish washing, baby bathing,
babysitting, and general chores as the other children and
parents ignored her contributions while either consciously or
subconsciously pushing more and more work on her.
Millie and I would become best of friends that would last a
lifetime.
However, the most interesting members are yet to come.
You can read all the chapters of “How To Be an Entrepreneur” by
going to http://salessuccessmagazin
e.com. These stories are copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick
Sr. 1995 thru 2005. Any person using this article must publish
it without modification and include authors bio and links.
