Stuck in a Lifetime Move - part 2

1920s era house by the railroad

In bits and pieces, over the next couple of years, I learned more about Edna. She was a little bit of a thing; a beautiful, hard working woman who, at a very young age, made the unfortunate mistake of marrying Tex's father.  The family consisted of Grampy's dad, Arthur Victor Sr. and Edna along with their two son; Arthur Victor Jr. ( that was Grampy--he wasnt called Tex back then) and little brother Willie. In 1932, during The Great Depression, Arthur Jr. Was 7 years old, Willie was 4, and they were living in a ramshackle old house in Methesda, Mass., right next to the railroad tracks. Edna's  husband, Tex's father, was a drunk who couldnt hold down a job any longer than a one-armed farmer can hold down a greased pig. Times were tough and even though necessities were few—they were still hard to come by.  The coal train rode through town and right past their house. Grampy remembers his mother would run out and wait by the tracks for it. A kind hearted R.R. man would shovel a bit of the coal off the coal cars as they passed, and as it fell onto the dirt by the track she would run after it, gathering it in her apron and then take it home to heat the house on those cold winter days.

According to Tex, his father was a professional no-account bastard, who hung out at the local bar and came home drunk most every night. He had a foul mouth, a mean temper, and a good left hook. Drunken bar brawls were his forté. He oftentimes came home and beat his wife and his boys in the leftovers of his drunken haze. And to add insult to injury, he carelessly slept around with no remorse of conscious.

Lifetime Movie circa 1930

This is beginning to sound like a Made For TV Lifetime movie. The kind where we always hope for, and usually get, a happy ending.  But real life people don't have scripts and more often than not our lives neither end up happy nor sad-—they just end.

In those days divorces were scarce and women were taught to shut up and " take it". So for years, with no parents or other family members to support her, Edna "took it". She put up with the beatings, the poverty, the mental abuse and the downright meanness. She eventually found comfort, love and solace in the arms of another man. And maybe more than one. As usually happens in any proper Lifetime movie, she got pregnant. When Arthur Sr. found out he beat her solid then packed the 2 boys up, lock, stock and barrel,  left no forwarding address and took off...never looking back. Edna was finally free but at the cost of losing her children. As for Tex and his little brother Willie, their problems had just begun.

(stay tuned for part 3)