After so many years of dad treatin’ us bad, we just accepted that that’s the way he was. We wanted him to like us. But he was always so mad and drunk. There just weren’t many nice words in our family. I guess the closest we got to a moment with dad was when he’d sign our report cards and instead of beatin’ us, he’d say he “reckoned that them marks didn’t look all that bad.” Once when Ralphie was a senior he started smokin’ cigarettes and got big ideas about droppin’ out. Dad said, “God damn ya . . . you think you ain’t gonna graduate high school . . . well, I’ll tell ya what . . . we’re both goin’ in a room and one of us ain’t comin’ out ALIVE.” The next day, dad drug Ralphie over to the principal’s office . . . threw him through the door and said, “My son’s back.” And once when Alice was elected for cheer leading in 6th grade, dad refused to buy her the outfit. The other kids took up a collection . . . charity for the lucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks. And the best Ann got was to be ignored and neglected. He was nicest to me of all of them but I rememember the hard knocks and meanness. Some how though after I had my daughter, we saw a whole new side of dad that we couldn’t believe. He couldn’t do enough for baby Suzi. He bought her things, took her places, remembered her birthday. He talked to her . . . held her on his lap. He NEVER slapped her across the face or beat her with a belt. We watched it unfold and we loved Suzi but in a way . . . we were just devastated to see that our dad was capable of kindness.