Background
Another short story of a time when the "authorities" were inclined to take dad away from us, both at our home town and temporary home in fair view.
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Mom was terrified! She gathered my older sister and I- telling us to go to the neighbors and hide.
It was dark outside, dad and mom had been fighting, I did not see but we knew dad was in one of his fits.
Many times when mom got angry at one of us, and dad got involved, his frustration and anger set off his headaches causing him to lose control with pain and rage taking over; mom then attempting to calm him often was beaten.
This time he was angry enough to find his fathers bullwhip, cracking it and hollering "You Girls" he left the house following us down the dark road.
We ran fast reaching a home down the farm road, beating on the door and crying. We adored dad and understood that his rages were not him; but he was a monster when the headaches came.
Dad raged through the little town searching for us, we were taken out the back door's of home's to other home's each place hiding us. The older people doing their best to calm him, he did not hurt anyone but the fear was there.
By early morning mom collected us and we returned home, dads fit had passed and he was sorrowful, we hurt for him.
The next day, people from home arrived quickly packing us up; taking us back home. Mom told us we were moved because the kindly people of the town were planning to put dad away to protect us.
We were moved into a very old house with holes in the walls that were made of Bricks formed out of mud and straw called adobes. The yard was full of fascinating things, from old buildings to a windmill with a shallow tank lots of huge trees and strange holes in the ground.
Later we learned that this place had been a junk yard, the holes had been old wells filled in.
Fair view
We arrived in this enchanting little town to find the family just getting ready to leave, they were part of a family that was one of the leaders of our polygamist group having lived there for years.
The house was fantastic even to our parents. There were three floors and more bedrooms than we ever had, oddly built with one room having no windows but a door leading to another bedroom with windows. The top floor had a balcony where we could see the large garage with a tree house by it.
When needed we could get to the ground from the balcony undiscovered.
The main floor was huge with a light with crystals hanging down and a fireplace, next to a dining room then a pantry by the kitchen and lastly a door leading to the basement. We were terrified of the basement only going down if mom made us, I remember going down the creaky wood steps quickly putting the box down seeing dark corners and shadows, the light barely showing watching the stairs always afraid the light would go off or door close trapping me. Even times spent in the kitchen we fearfully watched the basement door as we did our choirs.
By the time we went to public school and made friends, we learned many things about our home. The stories told were that a large family lived there many years before, a happy family then one evening something came from the fireplace killing them all, we were told that to talk about this murder would bring the monster out to kill us also. It was rumored that a treasure was behind the fireplace. Another part of the story was that the family haunted the house, we believed because often the lights turned on and off without anyone there.
Fair view was our home for awhile, we went to schools with Gentiles and ran fields full of old buildings.
We spent happy hours in the orchards of apples, swinging with our feet skimming through the water on watering days. We spent nights in the old tree house, especially when mom was angry, we would sneak in and steal food to take back to the tree house.
My only big sister two years older than I was in high school, she was terrified having never gone to school away from our group. She was tall for her age, with long dark hair and quite striking. She had a very hard time with the gym classes because the students were required to shower as a group also the boys were aggressive and she was shy.
Our first free Halloween was in Fair view, the first year mom kept us at home and the older neighbors came over disappointed because they looked forward to us trick or treating.
The next year students wore costumes to school. I was just around ten but for some crazy reason mom decided to dress me as a character called "Daisy Mae" this required short shorts and a over the shoulder blouse, I had no breasts and daisy was famous for hers so mom put my sisters bra under the blouse and stuffed it with tissue my naturally curly blond hair finished off the costume. This was a most humiliating experience as the boys in upper classes tried to see if my bra was stuffed.
I met an old man in fair view his wife had just died and he was sad, he had a yard full of roses, he invited me to clean or do odd jobs for a few dollars each week. Even after we left he sent me a gift once. The small town we lived in was full of older people whom had taken our family in when we came to it just a year or so ago. We were moved here from our little polygamist town by my grandfather the leader of the group; this because they did not want the attention of the state trying to put dad away.
Mom carried the responsibility of family, dad was strong, sweet and able to work harder than most men, but unable to do jobs that paid well, he worked picking fruit and any job requiring strength and endurance. I believe dad worked out his frustration at being unable to express and be the person he was before the accident. Dad did receive a little money for his disability and service in the war. Mom did all she could to pay bills and feed us while giving birth to so many.
He had headaches because of his accident when I was 4 years old. His heart stopped beating, and his skull broke in half, when his heart started again he was in a coma for 5 months and had a steel plate to secure his skull, since this he has been plagued with headaches that made him loose control.
This accident was when he was a lumberjack, he was stronger and bigger than his fellow workers so he took on a tree needing cut down, it was on a hill; he unknowingly stood on a fallen log when the tree fell it hit the log throwing him 30 feet in the air he hit his head on a rock splitting his skull the top coming over the bottom half. They were far into the forest and his heart had stopped, they announced him dead and they waited for help. 30 minutes later his heart started beating.
