I remember when we were kid's and Dad would always have to leave on trips somewhere. Sometimes it would be out of the country which meant he would be gone longer. I remember how mom would get really stressed before Dad would leave, but Mom was a worry wart anyway. As I got older I realized the reason why. Mom knew she was going to be on her own with us kid's and it wasn't Jodi and I she was worried about, it was always steve. Dad was our rock and the one thing that we never wanted to do was disapoint him. There was just something about Dad that was alway's right and good. Steve was always needing attention from our mother growning up. The first years of his life he lived in Champaign Ill. with our Grandmother" Molly Margret Strunk". Our Mother worked in the next town and would drive home on weekends to see Steve. Grandma loved Steve so much. Of course there were still kids of her own still living at home, so Steve got alot of attention. Grandma use to rock Steve to sleep every night in her arms. I think even though he got all that attention, all he wanted was his mother and her love. Mom was so young and her relationship with steve's Daddy wasn't a good one. She was looking for a better life for her and Steve. When she came to San Diego to visit her sister Lou, she was set up on a Date with Jim Shelley. He took her out to dinner and I remember her telling me that when he paid for dinner and it was with a fifty dollar bill. She said that was the first time she had ever seen a fifty dollar bill! Well that night my Dad fell in love. He thought our Mother was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and she was.
At the time Steve was about 4 years old and Mom found out she was pregnant with me! She told our soon to be Dad about it and he did not care! He married her anyway. Dad put her on a train back to Ill. to go get Steve. Steve was so happy and excited he was going to be with his Mother and was excited he was going to have a Daddy too. We heard that when Dad came to my Aunts house to meet Steve for the first time, Steve came running in the room and jumped onto my Dad's lap and said" Hi, you my new Daddy?" Steve was a character! Matter of fact Dad drove him down to the beach to see it for the first time, and as they drove down the hill you could see the bay and steve said" Boy ol Boy! That's the biggest swimmin pool I ever saw!!! He was so sweet but also must have been confused too. Steve at night was so use to his Grandmas love and how she rocked him to sleep every night , Dad said that Steve had screamed himself to sleep every night for three months . I think Dad must have known then that steve was going to need alot of attention!
I was born soon after and we lived in an apartment a few blocks from the beach. Dad knew we needed something bigger now so he bought us a brand new house! I remember there was a couple who lived next door to us and they were older than mom and dad, they had teenagers. Mom got real close to them and so did us kids. They made mom safe when dad would leave on trips. Mom always wanted her life and family to look and be perfect! and Dad gave that to us.
As Steve got older and Dad would leave on a trip, when Steve wanted attention or not get his way, he discovered how to run away! He found he got a real reaction out of mom when he would do this. Even though it was bad attention, it was attention! and he saw how upset and scared mom would get. This became a regular event in our house. Back in that time you use to be able to call the police and they would look for your kid. It use to be against the law to run away and it was considered serious back then. Steve became friends with a kid named Doug Frasier and this boy always was getting in trouble! I remember when Steve, Doug and a boy named Pat all ran away and hitched hiked all the way to disneyland and got inside. They got caught and I remember when Dad had to drive up to pick all 3 of them up from security. That was the first time dad had to put his foot down and do something. Dad drove the two boys home and then Drove Steve to juvenille hall. Dad told them he was uncontrolable. He left him in there for the weekend. Steve never really did anything wrong as a kid other than run away!
When he would get in trouble dad would take his favorit things away. When he would take his weights away he would just use Jodi or I as his weights! LOL Sometimes he got blamed for things he didn't even do! I remember it was almost Easter and Steve wanted to paint this big play house in our backyard for Jodi and I for Easter. One afternoon while he was painting it, by the way he was painting it Farmhouse Red with white trim. Our Aunt came over to visit my mom and us girls were out back playing. My aunt went to moms sewing room down the hall and she left her white purse in the living room. When they came out my aunt looked in her wallet and told my mom she had 100 dollars in her wallet and it was gone! She was positive my brother came into the house and must have stolen it! My mom jumped the gun and started yelling at steve about it and accussing him and she went out to the backyard yelling at him and he was screaming he didnt do it! He got so upset because he was out there doing a good thing ! He ran accross the grass and jumped the back fence into the canyon. After a few minutes mom looking at the playhouse he was painting realized he had red paint all over himself and hands! My Aunt had a white purse! She told her sister this and said to her look again your your purse are you sure you didnt hide it somewhere? She said Steven couldn't have got into your purse with red paint on his hands! Sure enough my Aunt found the 100 dollar bill hidden. My mom was screaming for him down into the cannon to come home! Mom was so upset at herself and her sister for automaticlly accusing Steve! Anytime he got in trouble it was never anything that was bad! Once he became an adult his crimes were always failure to appear! LOL and for not going to court over traffic tickets or always driving on suspended lic.
He learned along time ago he could never be a criminal! His luck was always bad! LOL! Anna saved him! I knew when I first met Anna she was the one for my brother! We all knew! They were meant to be together! Because their kids were meant to be! More to come........
