I grew up in a family that consisted of four boys and one sister. My sister was the oldest of our clan and as you can probably imagine, the four born back to back boys lead to a rough and tumble upbringing. The no-holds-barred approach to survival amongst the brothers was often more than our brave mother could handle.
You see, Mom was a peace-keeper, doing all that she could to keep the four brothers from killing each other. The pecking order was well established in our hierarchy and as my mother often said to us, “Boys, might does not make right.” She did her best to referee our noisome upbringing…spending most of her day refereeing the latest spat. Our mother was an expert at being a peace-keeper.
But eventually she would reach the end of her rope and wail to our rowdy bunch of ornery boys those famous words that made us all shiver in our shoes.
“I’ve had it with you boys! You wait until your father gets home!” I can still feel the remnants of the rumble that went down my spine with the thought of Dad and his belt when he got home from his hard labor in the factory at Kaiser Aluminum.
You see, my Dad was the peace-maker. When he showed up, all of the Tom Foolery ceased. Our father never uttered the words “Boys, this i ...
