Nuts - Marigrace Bannon

There’s no shortage of nuts in my family, from either side, although, truth be told my mother’s family has more than my fathers. Aunt Lizzie was a schizophrenic, in and out of mental hospital’s some public some private from her 20’s until she died of lung cancer in her 60’s. Pall Malls. My Uncle Jimmie was a Chiropodist, something just below the heel of a Podiatrist and I don’t think the profession is recognized anymore. Well he’d come down from Hoboken w/ my grandmother, Aunt Lizzie and my Uncle Billy and he was a fix it guy so my mother would have him fix our bikes, which he would take apart, chains, tires, steering wheels and lay the parts on our gravel driveway until he figured out the mechanical problem. We’d run over to fetch our fixed bike and then he’d kick us in the pants really hard and laugh a disturbing, sardonic laugh, and the kick really hurt a 7 or 8 or even an 11 year old butt and we didn’t know what to do, but put our bony butt on the seat of our bike and ride down the driveway. It was hard to tell if we were grateful or not. And then there’s my mother, the oldest of her 9 siblings and histrionic doesn’t come close in a description of her antics and erratic behavior. After my sister Elizabeth was born the 7th of the 8th of us, my mother came home from the hospital with a wild and blank stare, which turned out to be post partum depression and that gave way to electric shock therapy. I was 9 and the oldest so I had duties to attend to.