Let's keep our tour of the family going...

I wonder, if Pop and Grandma didn't like each other, why did he even bother with the facade of being sober and a tea-totaller at that?
Why wouldn't he just say "I don't care what you think" and drink?
There must have been something there.

When you were talking earlier about Brother #4...
He told me that he too has a 'wall around his heart'...
he isn't unscarred, just better at supressing it.
He laughs alot...just like sister #3... and myself, especially when I am uncomfortable...
we hide behind the laughter, don't let it fool you.

The family that you eluded to has always frightened me...

The daughter always seemed to like you...accept you...but I don't remember her ever talking to me. I remember her wearing revealing outfits. Later, I remember how harsh she was on her own daughter and heard stories about her abusing her husband.

Their oldest...so big and dominating...he was his father's favorite...football player...race car driver...simple though...I don't remember much about him when I was little. I did see him, after he was diagnosed with ALS just waste away. I was in college and Med school. He was so appreciative of any kindness as he got weaker and weaker...laughed alot, even when he was too weak. I regret not going to his funeral.

The middle son...hung with our older brothers...very much like them...I have wondered if he was a part of the abuse episodes when we were camping. Then his marriage that was a facade for his homosexuality/bisexuality. He made a forceful sexual advance on Sister #3's fiance one night. I always wondered why we never heard about that incident again...

The twins...intellectually disabled...I wondered if they were born with disabilities or was it trauma/neglect. I remember they were weird, but were they dangerous or humiliating? I remember ALOT of butter on popcorn when they made it.

The parents...Dad's brother...charming... laughed alot... but I have heard that he had an interest in younger girls... I remember him once saying, "if I only had a wife like your mother".

Then our Aunt H....She got pregnant young...I think I calculated that she was about 16 and he was over 20...I may be way off on that... I got the impression that she didn't really like her own kids...she was fine with me...She died very early...she was a somatizer who doctor shopped...She dropped dead in her 60's with an abnormal potassium level...too many pills working against each other.

It's amazing how many unhappy people let their health deteriorate...
a slow suicide without the guilt or shame.

All of these memories are just impressions and vague recall. Please fill in the blanks.
Maggie