Little Roof Jumpers

Chapter 9 The O'Leary's

                 

Mom changed into a skirt or dress before dad got home from work because once when my great grandparents were coming over for breakfast my dad took the only pair of jeans and sneakers my mom had and burnt them. Mom didn't like to wake up in the morning and put on a dress to fix breakfast and clean the house. 
Dad thought burning moms jeans quite funny until mom refused to come out of the bedroom and fix breakfast. She was really upset, cried and was angry too.  Dad said he liked seeing mom in a dress, she didn't need to wear jeans.  They must have compromised because mom eventually got another pair of jeans.

My parents were young, in their early twenty's when dad burnt mom's jeans.  He for some reason thought whatever he wanted to do he could and it was okay, because he was right.  And we should laugh and think his antics funny. Mom wouldn't dare burn something of dads.

Dad had a very controlling personality that caused all of us problems.

When dad said he liked to see my mom in a dress, I thought he had watched a little too much "Father Knows Best and Ozzy and Herriot."  My grandma wore a dress everyday and my grandfather came home in a suit and tie. I think dad wanted to create the same environment for us.  A more formal environment is how dad was most comfortable and he only knew one way to impose his wishes and that was with force.  Dad was mother's dictator and ours, it was the only way he knew how to control us.

Teaching manors, dignity and respect for ones self and others was something dad instilled in us at a very young age. Having parents that young had its plus and minus's.  I don't know how they did it. 

I always felt like my dad and mom were so young when they got married that they tended to play television roles and mimic their own parents and the atmosphere each grew up in. In the television shows the father was usually dominant and the wife cleaned house and cooked dinner in her pearls, high heels and dress.  The television kids were polite and obeyed most of the time and didn't cause much chaos.  When my dad played his roll in our family it wasn't working like it did on television and he tried to bend things to fit his idea of what his family should be. My mother was raised so differently than dad and their social backgrounds were so unlike that they created discord among all of us.

My dad, Patrick O'Leary, was a small man about five foot five with light skin and a spray of freckles across his nose and big dimples that made his youth shine.  His short stature gave him a chip on his shoulder that he handed down to all of us.  While looking through old pictures our young granddaughter pointed out that dad looked like our modern day, "Justin Bieber."   Dad was handsome, smart, athletic and academic he was the whole package.  The all American Boy!

Dad was Scot-Irish and German; he often blamed the Scot's for his temper. Dad was on a tennis team and played basketball at the YMCA and golfed when he could in the summers with our granddad. His temper was quick and without warning spinning out of control more times than I wish to remember.

            My Mom, Charlotte "Lotte" Kraus O'Leary was just a little over five feet tall with beautiful sparkly sapphire blue eyes and short light brown wavy hair. Mom's skin turned golden brown in the summer, which made the muscles in her arms, and legs look sleek and strong. She was also Irish and German.  Mom was easy going and friendly with a smile and laugh that was infectious.  She kept slim bike riding, lifting weights and chasing us around the neighborhood. She was the sweetest mother in neighborhood as long as we didn't make a mess or interfered with her two hour afternoon nap or until dad came home.

             My parents, met on a blind date when they were just sixteen years old.  Mom was a pretty country girl with several siblings and friends.  When dad picked mom up for a date he loved the noise and activity of her home.  They were informal, friendly and liked to tease each other especially mom when dad arrived.  Mom was outgoing and fun. Dad loved to watch her laugh and talk to her friends.  She was comfortable in her own skin; coming from a poor family didn't seem to affect her or her siblings.  They were fun to be around and always had something to laugh about.  Dad enjoyed the cheery mood that surrounded the Kraus family.