Steph was probably about 4 years old, and was standing next to the breezeway where Sharon couldn’t see her from the kitchen. She hollered, “Mommy I want to take a bathie!” and Sharon says, “Oh Stephanie, you don’t need a bath, you already had one today.” I was sitting on the couch listening to every word, but they didn’t know I was listening. Steph put her hands on her hips and she said “But Mommy, I thtink!” and I about lost it. I love that memory.
When I worked for the City, I would find toys, swings, merry-go-rounds, stuff like that at the landfill. I would bring them back and fix them up. One day I found a little bicycle. It had a crooked wheel on the front. I fixed it up for Stephanie. I put brand new training wheels on it, and she would ride it around on the back patio. Some time later, we bought her a big girl bike. I took the training wheels off the little bike and put them on the big bike, but for some reason she wouldn’t ride the big bike, I think because she said it was too big. I was out roter-tilling the garden one day. I stopped to take a break and looked up and she was riding that little bike WITHOUT the training wheels all over the place. It blew my mind! But she still wouldn’t ride the bigger bike WITH the training wheels for a long time after that!
On my off days I would ride our bikes to Steph’s school to pick her up sometimes. Other times I would pick her up in the Beanermobile, and let her and her friends sit on the tailgate on the way home.
Juan and Sharon would get in arguments and they never would give in to each other. He got mad at her for some reason and he didn’t want to go to school. He told her, “I’ll go to school, but I’m not gonna smile all day and I’m not gonna learn nothin’.”
Peetie was accident prone, but liked to make a ramp to ride his bike on out of a board and a block. He went off that ramp one day, went up in the air and came down in the road. It looked like he had been hit by a car. I never had any idea that much damage could be done just by him riding his bike off a block! He had another accident around the same time… same way, he fell off his bike over by Apple Creek and we had to take him to the hospital again. We had to take to the hospital so many times in Norman, when we walked in the ER, the nurses would say, “Hi, Steven. Back so soon?” They knew him by name!
Once we were babysitting the twins when they were probably 3 years old. They were with me out in the back yard as I was working on the lawn mower. I was looking for my screwdriver. Couldn’t find it. I looked over in the garden. One of them had it, and was digging in the dirt with it. I got up and walked over to where he was at with my screwdriver, came back to the lawn mower, couldn’t find my hammer. The other twin had it and was hammering the big tree with it. I got my hammer and went back to the lawn mower and couldn’t find the coil. The other one had the coil and was playing in the dirt with it in the garden. Every time I came back, the other twin would’ve taken something else away to play with it. I just put my hands on my head and said, “Ohhhhhh…. Forget it.”
I always enjoyed fixing Mexican breakfast when I was off work. It consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, refried beans in bacon grease. Even after the kids were all gone, I would still make the Mexican breakfast and invite them all over. I always enjoyed Kyla coming over for lunch and I always enjoyed Sharon’s spaghetti and homemade chili. I always enjoyed the kids coming by when I was home, dropping in to say hi and visit for a bit before going on with whatever they were doing.
I really appreciate Sharon letting me stay there even after we separated. I always felt welcome and at home. When I was there, I always stayed up late watching TV upstairs. If I wanted a snack, I could come down at any time and make one. I always appreciated her letting me come in for family get-togethers. But I have to admit I was sort of shocked when I came back last Christmas and she didn’t have the Christmas tree up. She always made a pretty tree. It took a lot of hard work to do that every year, and I think we all appreciated that. I always enjoyed seeing both sides of the family there during holidays, the Martinez’s and the Clark’s. I miss the house and I guess I always will. We’ll just have to go by every now and then to see the big oak tree that is still standing in the yard there…
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