Hollis and Henry

Grandaddy was a quiet, gentle man who didn't know what he was in for when he married Grandmother. Grandmother,even though she had a soft side, wasn't what you would call empathetic. I remember as a young child having headaches or feeling tired and she would say, "You can't have a headache, you're a child." When little brother Chris was born I was almost 10 yrs old. We had moved, again, from Tubman Street to 3rd Street. Mom went back to work, but she worked nights. Our house was a two story Brownstone. There were 3 bedrooms upstairs and one bathroom.To get to the kitchen you had to go downstairs, through the entree hall into the living room, then the dining room, and into the kitchen. Because mom worked nights I was elected to take care of Chris. If he woke up in the night, which he did, I had to go down to the kitchen and get him a bottle, feed it to him, and change his diaper. Grandmother never helped me. Remember, she was taking care of babies from the age of 7 so she thought I was up to the task. The only problem was when school started I also had to get up and go to school. One night when Chris was about a year old he just would not go back to sleep after giving him his bottle. He wanted to get in bed with me. He cried and cried.Finally I put him in the bed with me and said, "GO TO SLEEP". Well, that little rascal hauled off and popped me in the eye with that bottle( bottles were made of glass back then). I sat up, looked at him but he just smiled, put the bottle back in his mouth and laid down as if to say "that will teach you to yell at me!". I went to school the next day with a black eye!
I remember another night about 5 years later. I was in high school by now and had been out with friends. I got home about the same time as Jerry. Grandmother and grandaddy were already in bed. Thinking everyone was asleep we quietly went to bed too. The whole house was dark, and quiet.It was so still you could here a pin drop. Suddenly we heard, "Henry, move over." Cha-ching, cha-ching went the springs on our grandparents bed. About 5 minutes later we heard, " Henry, please move over." Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. Again another 5 quiet minutes past. Grandmother, very irritated by now said, "Henry, for GOD SAKES move over!" CHA-CHING Grandaddy jumped up out of bed and yelled," WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, WOMAN, MOVE OUT OF THE *#0^=x#@ WORLD?!" Everyone who was still awake burst out laughing. Even as I write this I am still laughing. It wasn't in granddaddy's nature to have such an outburst. Grandmother,on the other hand, was famous for it.