5. PAWNS ON THE CHESSBOARD

Notice the body language.  This is why I despised Lela May.  She didn't want to hold us and always kept us at arm's length.  Major did care about us - a bit - but as you can see he was far too old and feeble at that point to be much of a father to Dodie.

PAWNS ON THE CHESS BOARD

Sacrificing the Children to Save Her Daughter

Lela May had been committed for 'observation' at the asylum for 90 days.  During that time, the staff tried everything they knew about at that time in an effort to bring her out of the catatonia.  In those days, that kind of psychosis was considered to be psychological and there was little or no thought to treating it as a disease.

First, they tried electroshock treatments.  Lela May would respond by coming out of the catatonia briefly, hysterical, fighting the restraints that bound her to the table, and completely out of contact with reality.  Any kind of therapy was impossible with her in that condition.

The doctors decided that Grandma should bring Dorothy and me to the asylum so Lela May could see us.  They thought it might snap her out of it.  Instead, Dorothy and I were horribly traumatized, seeing her covered in bruises, wild-eyed, and disheveled.  She had no idea who we were at first and then she broke into howling sobs, clawing at the screen that separated us.  Apparently, she thought that if we were there, Major would be coming, too.  And that he meant to kill her.

"The Snake Pit"

That movie came out in that same period.  Ironically, the star, Olivia de Havilland, even looked like Lela May.  In the script, the blind ignorance of what to do with people who were psychotic mirrored what Lela May was going through in that asylum.

When the electric shock therapy failed due to her violent reactions to it, they decided to try insulin shocks.  Those treatments blocked a lot of her memory and made her more docile and easy to handle.  She still didn't respond to any attempts at counseling.

When the doctors wanted Grandma to commit her permanently and told us that they planned to do a pre-frontal lobotomy, the family went ballistic.  Even then, everyone knew that a lobotomy would turn her into a vegetable.    Grandma decided that the only way to deal with Lela May was to bring her to live in her home (along with Great Grandma who was already there) and to bring both of Lela May's children there, also.

Human Sacrifices

The idea that I was terrified of Lela May and didn't want her in the same house, much less have to share a bedroom with her and Dorothy, didn't faze Grandma at all.  After all, we were 'just kids' and we would 'get over it'.  Dottie recognized how traumatized Dodie was and fought to keep her, but Grandma insisted that the only thing that would bring Lela May around was a normal family life.

George helped her find a brand-new 1948 Chrysler Town & Country sedan and buy it.  He drove that car to Grandma's house on W. Craig Street and parked it there for Lela May to drive.  One of the attendants at the asylum volunteered to come over on his days off and teach Lela May how to drive.

By now it was late August and I was getting ready to start my new school when suddenly Major found out that Lela May was out of the asylum and coming to live with Grandma.  He insisted on seeing us but Grandma refused.  She said he could visit with the children and she would take us to Paul's house for him to see us there.

Dorothy ran to her Daddy immediately, and he gave her a doll which she named Mary.  She kept that doll for years until it finally fell apart.  I refused to talk to him or go anywhere near him.  He and Paul were seated on the sofa in the living room talking about Lela May's condition while I was hiding in the kitchen listening to every word.

Bloody Christmas

I started at Travis Elementary School in 5th grade.  Now that he knew where I was, he would come to the school front office and demand they take me out of class to meet with him.  I was so embarrassed by this I wanted to run and hide.

The only way he would relent on his tactics of cornering me at the school was to insist that I must come to his studio apartment located a few blocks from the school and visit him there.  Thankfully, I cannot remember the content of those meetings.  I just remember that dark, musty smelling, little room with its single bed, small table and chairs, and a broken down old couch to sit on.

He showed up at Grandma's house on Christmas with presents for Lela May, Dorothy, and me.  He talked Lela May into getting up and dancing with him in the living room while the old Victrola played "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".  He persuaded her that he just wanted to make her happy and he wanted her to come live with him.

Grandma still believed that being around her children would help her regain her sanity so they compromised:  Major moved into one of her vacant apartments with Lela May while Dodie and I stayed in the main house with Grandma.

I have hated Christmas ever since then.  Just ask anyone who has ever lived with me and they will tell you that I usually get sick in December and stay sick until January.

And So On...

I won't bore you with what a convoluted mess this turned out to be.  Lela May once again had a nervous breakdown and was returned to the asylum, again.  This time, Major left permanently and went off to drink himself to death.  We didn't see him again until the middle of 1950 when the VA Hospital in Temple, Texas told Grandma that he was dying and wanted to see his children one last time.  She had Paul drive us up there.   We went to the hospital cafeteria where he got me some lemon meringue pie and Dodie a bowl of ice cream to keep us occupied while he talked to Paul.

The funeral was a few weeks later and I thought that now, maybe, Lela May could get on with her life.  But Grandma had discovered that Dodie and I were good little workers and she had no intention of letting any of us leave.

Making My Own Money

I said that if I was going to replace one of the workmen, I expected to be trained and paid.  I was tired of going to school in ragged clothes that were too small for me now and in hand-me-downs that looked like I had gotten them from a recently deceased elderly aunt (which I had).

I found a store in San Antonio that sold fabric remnants for 25 cents a yard.  I could work every day after school and make enough to cover all my school expenses, shoes, underwear, and socks and then make my own dresses on the old treadle sewing machine that Great Grandma had.

This was my first taste of independence and I loved it.  I learned how to hang wallpaper, refinish furniture, paint interiors and exteriors of houses, and scrub down vacated apartments to get them ready to rent.

Dodie was put to work dusting because her tiny fingers could fit into nooks and crannies that we couldn't reach.  I also took pictures of her standing on a chair in the kitchen at the sink washing dishes.  She was 5 years old by then.

Paul would come over to take care of any electrical work and George would come by to help Lela May with the floor sanding and polishing.

Moved and Moved and Moved Again

Grandma came up with a scheme which is now called 'flipping houses'.  In 1952, she sold the house on W. Craig to George and Dottie for $55,000. which was a lot of money then.  She used that money to buy several single-family homes to use for rental properties.  Then she would move all of us into those houses, one house at a time, to completely renovate it.  After a few months, when that house was finished, she would sell it, carrying the note herself at bank interest rates.  Then we would be moved to the next house to do the same thing with it.

In two years, I attended several different junior high schools:  Twain, Horace Mann, Northeast, and then back to Horace Mann.  It was impossible to have friends or any kind of social life.  I didn't know anyone and was too busy working to have the time to get to know them.

Dottie To The Rescue:

I was fed up with Lela May who worked when she felt like it and then moped around the rest of the time, muttering to herself and looking at the rest of us like we were strangers.  I was 14 years old and busy making my own money.  I did not want to put up with any more of Lela May mewling and puking about how she wanted to "go home to her house on Drexel Street and take her children with her".

No way was I going to be trapped in that wretched house of hideous memories, forced to give up going to Jefferson High School, and lose the jobs that were making money for me.  I threw a screaming fit and slapped Lela May around, telling her I was tired of her ruining my life.

She took Dodie and left.  She dragged that child to that house and proceeded to ruin her life once again.  Grandma told me to pack my bags, get out, and go find another boarding house.  She wasn't going to put up with me beating the shit out of my mother.

George and Dottie came to my rescue.  Dottie insisted that, if she couldn't save Dodie (Lela May had made it clear that the only way to get Dodie away from her was over her dead body), she could at least save me.  And once again, Dodie and I were split up and went to live in unfamiliar places with people we did not know well.