trauma

Growing Up Dysfunctional Part 2

Growing Up Dysfunctional Part 1 * * * The thing about me growing up dysfunctional is that I didn’t know it was warped. I was happy to throw away grandma’s vodka bottles that she hid between her mattress and her box spring. She paid me $20 every Saturday to dust & vacuum the living room, clean the bathroom, mop the … Read More

How to Traumatize Your Kid

Lovely thoughts of Christmases long gone fill my mind. Pierogi and fried lake perch. Snowballs and kolachy.  Midnight Mass.  Big family dinners at grandma’s house. Then. We’d walk across the alley back to our house, all excited for Santa to come. Dad would get his gun out and start teasing that he was going to shoot Rudolph. He was a … Read More