With four brothers

and one sister there never seemed to be any peace and quite at our house

(or a dull moment just ask our parents). We just seem to always get into

trouble especially when our sister Deborah was around (you would think

we would win sometimes, it being four against one, but no - sisters always

win - sisters were always right).

Growing up,

I never could understand why we were constantly in trouble, on restriction

or going out into the back yard next to the swamp to pick out switches.

Most of the time, we were just trying to help - us being innocent little

boys and all. We never deserve any of the punishments or whuppins we got.

Just ask us, and we would tell you we didn't.

Well, thinking

back, I do remember there was that whole dryer incident that did get us

into a lot of trouble. But it really wasn't our fault; we were just doing

what Dad said, "Make sure you play with your sister."

Dad came into

some money and decided the way to get rich was to build an apartment complex

(This was the first of many ideas that he had to get rich). When he finished

building, he had ten apartments and a long basement, which he divided

up into storage for the tenants and a small laundromat.

When Dad had

to do work on the apartments, he let us come with him so we could play

with the other kids. When he started to work, he would always say the

same thing: "You boys make sure you let your sister play."

We all said,

"Yes, sir" (back then you always said "yes, sir" to

Dad) and with that he would send us to the basketball court out