My daddy was a drunk. Maybe even the town drunk. I don’t know since we were never in one town long enough to get that title established in our own heads. He didn’t like to work anywhere very long, and he didn’t like to be at home, no matter where that was. But Mama always had a big belly or a nursing baby, and she was always unhappy. I never did figure that one out.

It always seemed like Mama was happier when Daddy wasn’t there, even if she worried about how to pay the rent or feed us. She had to establish credit at the local grocery stores, which back in those days wasn’t so hard. If you didn’t pay your bill, no more credit. So most people managed to pay it. Daddy didn’t have to be in a town very long for the local bars to extend him credit. They found out real quick that they would be the first ones paid when he worked. They had priority over rent and grocery stores, and they knew it. He was very popular in the bars.

Whenever Daddy quit a job and ran out of money, he came home for awhile. He spent a lot of time lying in bed. We only had one fan, and when he was there it was on him, even though Mama was usually in the hot kitchen or pregnant. We children usually got called back to the bedroom to swat flies, which we put in a small matchbox and got paid a penny for each when he was satisfied they were all killed. He read magazines while this activity was going on. I wasn’t four yet, so I wasn’t required to earn my keep that way.

There wasn’t too much to like about my daddy if you were his family and had to live with him. If Mama back talked him, he popped her or threw things. You’d think that wouldn’t happen very often, but my mama was feisty. She would get in his pockets sometimes when he was sleeping and take any money he had, and that would really start the yelling and throwing.

 

But every time we moved to a new town, he would be nice for a few days. Maybe that’s why Mama didn’t gripe about the moving. On one of those nights we were on a blanket in the front yard of the new rent house. He didn’t know anyone yet and he was going to start work the next day. Mama seemed happy. The new baby was asleep. Daddy was showing me the stars—the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, which I just couldn’t make out. So he said he would throw me to the stars so I could see the the little one better. Up I went. Three times. Then back on the blanket to stare up again.

It had worked. I could see the Little Dipper now. Mama was smiling.