A Little Family History

I may have written about some of these things previously, but I'm not sure.

When I was growing up the only occasions on which my father ate with the rest of the families was on holidays. During the other meals he would sit on the side of my parents' bed. He would be wearing white boxers. My mother would take his food to him. Sometimes she would cook steaks for him. No one else ever ate steak. Later my mother bought me some white boxers for Christmas, because that was what my father had worn. At the time I never wore boxers, and I told her that. She insisted on giving them to me. She seemed to want to make me more like my father. This was especially, because he had beat her when I was young. I do not remember him beating her, but one of my sisters told me that she remembered that he gave her bruises.

I do not know how many cousins I have. I did not anything at all of the existence of one of my cousins until he won the Nobel Prize. I learned that his father had divorced his mother and married her sister. The rest of the family was not fond of his mother. I did not know anything else until I read his autobiography, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field. (I love that title, I will write more about that book after I finish rereading it.) As far as I know I do not have any female first cousins. I have three sisters but no brothers. I do not know if any of my cousins have died. I may have a couple of aunts who are still living. I have not seen some family members in more than thirty years. I know that my mother's brothers and sisters treated her as if she was not intelligent. This should not have happened. She was highly intelligent. She read a lot, and she learned a lot from what she read. She would say that she was not intelligent, but I would always let her know that I thought that she was.

I have been told that one of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, but I am not sure if this is true. An aunt put together a history of the family, but he is not mentioned in this history. It is said that his daughter married into my family, but I have seen no proof of this. I remain skeptical about this. This is the history of my father's family. The previous paragraph is about my mother's family. I don't know much about her ancestry. There have been and are eccentrics on both sides of my family.