LOOKING BACK

I can say now.. I understand the pain, suffering and constant turmoil in my parents life when they didn't have means to supply for their family. When your a child you can only see the surface of the problems. You only see how they affect you. But now having raised 6 kids alone, and know what I went through for so many years...the desperation of an everyday chance that things will get better tomorrow...and just get through this day..Without a word, the everyday fight was what I now know my parents suffered. While my father was wiring houses for free to pay for the land we live on...he needed to find a way to feed, his family and pay the bills. I must have been in fourth grade and my sister Carole was in ninth. I'm not sure, but what I do remember so vividly is the day of desperation for us. My parents plan for survival was to go to Butler and buy cases of eggs. We would candle them in the living room and put them in boxes for resale. In case you don't know about candling eggs, you take one egg at a time and set it on a box with a light inside. You can see if the egg has been fertilized by the rooster or if it is good to eat..the light makes the egg see through. Anyway, we candled one by one, placed them in egg boxes. My Mother and Dad would leave early in the morning after we got on the bus for school. They would not return until 8 or 9 at night. They would go to the city of Pittsburgh, sell eggs door to door...for 50 cents a dozen. With the profit my parents tried to pay our bills, that is what we lived on...the small amount of money each dozen of eggs would bring. Mom and Dad would take my little sister Georgetta with them because she was just small and not in school yet..My parents bought a few dozen peeps. They lived in the house with us. We covered with a small light bulb to keep them warm. All night they peeped..I grew to love that sound, it was so calming. I think my parents plans included starting a chicken farm and sell eggs for a living..if we could make our own eggs then our profit would be higher..but being kids, we didn't care anything about any of that...we just loved the peeps..and enjoyed holding those little fuzzy things that were vulnerable and needed us. The days went by and all went well...things were beginning to look up...I can now relate to what my parents went through day after day...trying to keep us fed, clothed and for survival for another day!!!