Speaking of the negatives of having a large family That typically meant a noisy environment. My
siblings and I were not permitted to be loudly in disagreement with each other. We argued quietly.
As a stringent disciplinarian, my father did not discriminate between daughters, sons nor age.
I never had an argument with any of my sisters. My younger brother and I quietly talked smack at
each other all the time, but we knew the consequences if we got too loud.
Me and number #9 were loudest when we were trying to sing doo-wap in our bedroom. We used to
make up our own lyrics. Some I recall were plenty good, but we could never remember what we
made up. We didn't write them down.
We would just start all over with new lyrics after we thought we had perfected a song.
All of our commotions, as he would call it, was just noise to our dad. He would come from his
bedroom to our bedroom at the other end of the house. We could hear him grumbling and cussin'
along the way. Building his anger...
He'd come around that corner and curse"Shut that damn noise up and take your ass'es to bed".
We did. He never had to repeat himself. Never! I think he liked saying that and us responding so.
He never punished us for trying to sing. So we did that almost every night until my brother and I
nally got a TV in our bedroom. It would keep us quiet. Amazingly we always agreed on what to
watch from the 3 channels available. I can see where it may be an issue today.