My Disappearing Aunt

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

I think this was around 1990. I was over at my Uncle and late Aunt’s house in Melbourne Beach, Florida.

My Uncle was at work. I was probably over there that day until my Mom picked me up. I stayed there during the day frequently when my Mom was working. Sometimes my Aunt S and I would go shopping together or do other stuff. You’ll hear about some of those stories later. There are some humdingers.

They had a house with a circle driveway. They had so many people over there that it was ideal for them to have it for everyone to have a place to park. Sometimes, cars were wedged in there, front to back.

Their house was a four-bedroom, two-bathroom with a one-car garage. They had a pool in the backyard but it was only a small round pool. It was an above ground pool that they added dirt and plants around. The steps up into the pool were railroad ties. They had a large backyard.

The family room was located in the southern section of the house. There were multiple windows from the ceiling to just above floor level. One of the different things was, if the television was on during dinner, instead of turning it off, they would put a towel over the picture. 🤣 LOL! Strange.

There was a couch, a coffee table, television, a couple of end tables, an ottoman, my Uncle’s chair, a rocking chair, three stools, and some other piece of furniture in the family room.

The family room was a step down from the kitchen.

My Aunt was in the kitchen. She was always in the kitchen. Usually she just stayed in there to talk with everyone. They had some bar stools in the family room that were up against the kitchen counter overhang.

On this day, it was just the two of us. To start we were talking about something and then I started reading the newspaper. I was sitting in my Uncle’s chair. My back was to her. I was reading the sports section when I saw that Atlanta Braves pitcher Steve Avery was going to be coming to one of our local colleges for a signing session. I mentioned something about it to her and that it cost $25.

Then she wasn’t acknowledging me, so I swung the chair around to see why. It was a swivel chair with a large cushion.

She was gone!

I said to myself, “Where’d she go?”

It was like POOF, she disappeared.

So I turned the chair back around and continued to read the sports page.

A few minutes later, as I was reading, she stuck a check in my face. She didn’t say one word. It was for $25. I told her I was just talking about it, I didn’t want to go. But she said I was going. I thought, “Great! Now what am I going to do?!” I wasn’t even interested in it. I just thought it was cool that a big name baseball person was coming to one of our local colleges, the college I would later graduate from.

I dreaded going. I thought I would probably be surrounded by all these kids. I was not a kid, I was an adult. I told my Mom that I didn’t want to go. But we didn’t know how I could get out of it.

Then, something great happened. Two weeks before he was scheduled to come, he canceled. Hallelujah! Someone was looking out for me.

When I saw her next, I gave her the money back.

Conclusion

She should have asked me if I was interested in going. This would have saved me a whole lot of trouble.

I was a baseball fan at the time. I was a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. When we moved to Florida, there were two channels, WGN and WTBS, that carried baseball. I watched the Cubs and the Atlanta Braves.

She never asked me what teams or players I followed. They never really cared about anything to do with me, unless it benefited them. Later, you’ll learn about some of the things they tried or did.

Have you ever been forced to go to something by one of your relatives? If so, can you tell us about it?

Until next time, happy reading.

-Matt