1970

Oh all those letters! How much he loved me and missed me. Would not know it from his behavior once he came home from jail. You know how couples have "our song". We never did. Was I always sarcastic? I said "Together" by the Intruders was ours, because we never were. The only conversations were arguments. He wanted something and was prepared to argue until he got it. It became easier to just say "yes, dear", and skip the fights.

On better days would say our song was "People Got To Be Free" because the first time I heard it, he pointed out the lyric "why can't we learn to love one another".

So, he won the argument, we moved to the more expensive apartment. Years later I thought I was guilty of negative thinking. Rather than saying "can not afford $100. rent," might have shown trust and belief that he would be able to pay $180. At the time his brother was cheating on his wife. He used to bring the lady to visit. He or they often stayed overnight. My brother, Richard, home from jail, likewise came and stayed overnight.

Rich's wife's mother refused to let her see him. They would meet up at our apartment. However, do not remember her ever spending a night. Can not say that my younger sister was pregnant and our father kicked her out of the house. Unmarried, pregnant, that much is true. She was engaged to be married; the man broke the engagement after she became pregnant.

Thus it was my husband's idea to rent a house with my brother, his wife, and my sister. Despite the fact, which you know I pointed out, we had just moved into the apartment and had a year lease. Did we get evicted for non-payment of rent? I think we simply moved without paying rent the last month, and likely owing rent for the month prior. But we may have been given an eviction notice. Zero recall.

So we moved in October and were evicted December 1970. That is when we moved into an efficiency motel room. After a week or two we moved to a different motel, same set-up. As mentioned, he finally talked his father into floating yet another loan to enable us to rent an apartment.

My sister had given birth, gave beautiful baby girl up for adoption, and moved back home, maybe prior to the eviction notice. Do not think my brother or his wife were still staying at the house at the time of the eviction. He went to jail soon afterwards and she divorced him.

At that time and until I started this series of posts, I never considered that we were homeless. But we were without permanent residence, so I am going to say, that was my first experience with being homeless.