baggage

There was not a lot of other people baggage that came when “we” married our step dad. Most lived in California, and were not frequent visitors in Idaho, and we did not visit them too often.

Robert wasn't baggage, just a high strung 8 year old, when he came and spent a summer with us.

Robert was the son of the 2nd son and his wife Gladys, the one who My Fair Lady used as a voice model.

He was several years younger than me, so he was like another little brother. My half brother Ben was born about that time and was a just a baby.


The distinguishing thing about Robert was that one eye would follow where he was looking and the other would wonder around. It was highly disconcerting, and I am sure he was massively self conscience about it. Mom told me that this defect was surgically repaired, some time after I saw him last. He is normal sighted now.

Robert became an engineer, as I remember, likely a very good one.

Later in my life Dad and his next brother, looked up their long deserted daughters. Dad moved his daughter from California to Idaho and both brothers tried hard to make up for lost time and be good fathers, but too much time had gone by. They were not evil to each other, but they were never really close. This is one place where Grandma T’s efforts to protect herself and her precious family sewed some really bad seeds.

I have never met dads brother's daughter. She was about the same age as Dad’s daughter. My brother keeps track of at least some of them pretty well, after all, they are his cousins.

It is strange how things turn out.