by Ticia

Created on: June 12, 2009   Last Updated: November 10, 2009

It was the simplicity of it. We didn't worry about money and survival but our parents did. We worried about who was going to get the red M & M's when my mother split the one and only bag she bought amongst her six children. That was a treat! It was rough on Mom and Dad but we didn't know that then. I grew up in the Bronx and we lived in a 3 bedroom large apartment with my 5 other siblings. My three sisters and I shared a room while my two brothers and Mom and Dad shared the other two. Our room had two sets of bunk beds for the four of us girls and we had one dresser with four drawers. My drawer was the third because I was the third in line. Dad worked two jobs to keep food on our table and clothes on our backs.

But you know there is something you lose when you get older; the innocence and simplicity of life itself.

In the winters the snow was always heavy with blizzard like conditions. We would have so much fun building snowmen and forts out of snow and they appeared so huge back then. The summers were full of kids in the courtyard playing ball or playing with our Barbie dolls with Ken and Barbie, her friend Midge and let's not forget about Skipper who came out later. I remember Mom always looking out of our 2nd floor apartment window to make sure we were all still there as she hand washed all our clothes and hung them out on the line. When Mom called us all in for lunch we would have peanut butter and jelly or tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. Our dinners would consist of spaghetti on Sunday with leftovers on Monday; meat loaf; yucky liver which we all hated and on Tuesdays we would have beef stew because my Grandpa would come over. He would make us all finish our meal if we were to earn a tootsie roll pop. He only brought six so we each had the opportunity to enjoy it only if we finished our dinner. The table we all ate at was a picnic table with two benches and a chair at each end for my parents, except when Grandpa came over on Tuesday nights he took over Dad's chair. My Mom, she never sat down because she was always doing something. I remember when my Grandpa died and seeing tears in my Dad's eyes that I have never seen before. I didn't know what death was about or what was happening except Grandpa stopped coming over and we had no more lollipops.

I remember well the smell of summer which was a treasure as we all awaited the Mr. Softie truck and if Dad could afford it he would treat us to an ice cream cone. On a Saturday night if he had some good

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