The Boy

I vicariously lived and grew up in Westfield, the boyhood home of my beloved. Most of the people who lived in this town were connected in some way to US Steel, for this reason I would tease my husband and his siblings and say, "Westfield was a pilot city." Listening to their stories,the amenities they had were not available in neighboring towns at the time, i.e independent garbage and sewage collection a commissary and a few other things I can't recall.
Melvin was the third of seven children, two boys and five girls. His brother was older and off making his mark in the world so Melvin was surrounded by girls. His sisters would tell me how mischievous he was and how they tried, unsuccessfully, boss him. In rebellion he would hide their dolls or cut the dolls hair, taunt their girl friends when they came to visit and kiss them on the forehead so hard that a red mark would appear, this would become a trademark kiss given to me, my children and his younger sisters.
What he loved most was playing underneath the house with his toy soldiers and cars and going over to Papa's house. Papa was his granddad. Being the only boy at home, this was his great escape where he could avoid chores, have time away from the girls and eat Mrs. Della's cooking. He loved his family and I believe being raised with so many girls made his heart more compassionate to the sensitivity of a woman's heart, but Papa was larger than life to him. He loved to tell the story of how he would sell peanuts for his grandad at the balls games and him being a little boy a man once took a bag of his peanuts and did not pay him. He said Papa, who walked with a cane, saw the incident and told the man to pay him, the man still refused. Now Papa was a quiet man, as was Melvin's dad, so without saying a word Papa came across that mans head with the cane, suffice to say, the peanuts were paid for, no one said a word. Melvin looked on with awe. Papa sat back down and continued watching the game. This act of courage was not wasted on Melvin and served him well when he had to defend himself from a bully.  His growth spurt was delayed so, for a while, he was smaller than some of the other boys, one fellow took his lack of physical stature for granted and tried to bully him on the walk home from school. Melvin said he took a piece of two by four and hid it in the bushes on the path home, when the bully came at him he lead the boy right to the two by four and wailed on his head, after that, his size became a misnomer and the bullies left him alone. They would say, "better not mess with Pep, a nickname he earned from eating a bunch of peppers he thought were fruit, he got sticks hid out everywhere to knock you out."
 The little mischievous boy was also a  ladies man. He and his friends would peer through the windows of girls in their little town to see if they could catch them undressing... and he remembered, fondly, his first tryst with the neighborhood  fast girl.
Once when we attended a funeral of one of his classmates, afterward, all I could hear was his female schoolmates chirping, "Heeeeyyy Pep, Heeeeyyy Pep," while looking at him impishly. I would stand back and watch the spectacle and imagine that's how it was when he was a boy. He'd drop his head to the side and say, "Hey there or Hey Baby," give them a hug and fain interest in what they were saying. If he said, Sho' Nuff?" that was code for he ain't heard a word they said and Poo rescue me.  He was a funny man and a precocious little boy.


Tomorrow.