Never Done... (Chapter Five)

While "Firebird" was hauled out (of the water) to replace those major components of her spine along with planking (yes she was made of wood), caulking, and fasteners, we continued to live on, or rather in her... For some time we could actually walk up a couple of steps into the bow (front) while the forefoot was being replaced. We had no working plumbing, no real galley (kitchen), or any other conveniences. We had a kitchen of sorts set up on the concrete floor of the shed Firebird sat under during her reconstruction, refrigerator, grill, hot-plate, etc... Fortunately there were also bathrooms close by that had showers, so the mid-night wake up call by mother nature, did not require a long distance walk. Our dishes were washed by us kids. We would take the dish pan filled with dirty dishes down to the dock next to the elevator that hauled our new home out of the water, along with the Lemon Joy (more on Lemon Joy later) and a hose; we would wash the meal's dirty dishes. We took turns doing this for quite a while. That is, until my mom noticed (during an extremely low tide cycle) our silverware shining back up at her from the bottom of the river. It appeared that one of my brothers (who shall remain nameless) got tired of washing the silverware and started dumping it into the drink. He was later assigned "Dishes for Life" by Mom.

Speaking of Mom... At this point we boys were not attending a traditional school... We were introduced to correspondence school, which we would continue after Firebird was re-commissioned and we started our voyage. Needless to say, the home schooling (of sorts) required very little time. Mom had to keep us all occupied with tasks (TV was not a major time consuming option at this point except for a new 1/2 hour long, black and white daytime drama called "All My Children", with a then 24 year old Susan Lucci, playing the 15 year old Erica Kane). Needless to say, the bitch-diva Erica Kane has been a part of my life ever since. My classes later in college were all scheduled around "All My Children", "One Life to Live", and "General Hospital". Thanks Mom, for giving me direction in my life as to priorities and which "soaps" to call my own...

Dad was working during the week, so Mom was left with the four of us during the same time. Mind you, we were all born between 1954 and 1958, so were all in those early teen/pre-teen years. While personally (speaking from experience with my own), I feel boys are much more cooperative than girls during this stage of their development... It's when they (myself included) turn 15 or so, that the terrible teens come out... The rebellion, the quietness, the secretive comments, the defensiveness, yeah you all know what I am talking about... And the anger that a 15 year old boy feels is never directed at their Mom. It's always poor unsuspecting, working all week, looking out for the financial security of his family, Dad.

Need to take a break, as to not to ignore my household duties...

Over and totally "Out", from Portsmouth, VA