Street Sweeper

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Street Sweeper

I remember the first day I saw my brother. June of 1965. I was 5 years old and in my fathers 57' Chevy Belair. We went to pick up my mom and my new baby brother from the hospital. I was in the back seat, which I remember as being huge but I guess it just seemed that way because I was small. My mother, who still looked like Barbie with brown hair, got into the front seat and placed Johnny up on her right shoulder and there we were, face to face. All small and wrinkly he was. I just stared at him thinking “This will be interesting” lol.

Now Johnny came into this world in a weird way. Ya see he was not delivered by a doctor. Nope. He was delivered by my father…on the sidewalk outside the hospitals front door. Seems my mother went into labor and couldn't go any farther. So out came John looking for something to get into right off the bat.

Now my brother Johnny was what you'd call a hand full as a child. He got into everything. Looking back at family pictures of my mother from oh…say 1965 to about 1970, you can really see the toll us boys took on her. lol She went from this neat, petite Barbie doll woman to this frazzled, tired looking mom. Still beautiful but looking weary. Now all was just fine with the two girls and myself but when Johnny arrived, all hell broke loose and it started with him being born on the sidewalk in front of the hospital.

When he became old enough to understand English the girls and I would explain to him how he was born. Hehehe. But we embellished it some. Now Johnny was the only kid in the family who had dark skin and dark hair. The rest of us were blue eyed blondes, except for my dad. Johnny was the spitting image of my father as a child. But a four year old didn't understand this. So we told him that there was a mix-up somewhere. We got the wrong kid. We told him he was born on the sidewalk and slipped from dads hands and rolled into the street gutter just as a street sweeper was going by. The street sweeper swept him up and took him away. We had to go down to the city dump and find him but we got the wrong kid because his hair was dark and so was his skin. He'd go crying of to mom. Hehehee… we were so mean.


	Back to Stories KNB&J Street Sweeper I remember the first day I saw my brother. June of 1965. I was 5 years old and in my fathers 57' Chevy Belair. We went to pick up my mom and my new baby brother from the hospital. I was in the back seat, which I remember as being huge but I guess it just seemed that way because I was small. My mother, who still looked like Barbie with brown hair, got into the front seat and placed Johnny up on her right shoulder and there we were, face to face. All small and wrinkly he was. I just stared at him thinking “This will be interesting” lol. Now Johnny came into this world in a weird way. Ya see he was not delivered by a doctor. Nope. He was delivered by my father…on the sidewalk outside the hospitals front door. Seems my mother went into labor and couldn't go any farther. So out came John looking for something to get into right off the bat. Now my brother Johnny was what you'd call a hand full as a child. He got into everything. Looking back at family pictures of my mother from oh…say 1965 to about 1970, you can really see the toll us boys took on her. lol She went from this neat, petite Barbie doll woman to this frazzled, tired looking mom. Still beautiful but looking weary. Now all was just fine with the two girls and myself but when Johnny arrived, all hell broke loose and it started with him being born on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. When he became old enough to understand English the girls and I would explain to him how he was born. Hehehe. But we embellished it some. Now Johnny was the only kid in the family who had dark skin and dark hair. The rest of us were blue eyed blondes, except for my dad. Johnny was the spitting image of my father as a child. But a four year old didn't understand this. So we told him that there was a mix-up somewhere. We got the wrong kid. We told him he was born on the sidewalk and slipped from dads hands and rolled into the street gutter just as a street sweeper was going by. The street sweeper swept him up and took him away. We had to go down to the city dump and find him but we got the wrong kid because his hair was dark and so was his skin. He'd go crying of to mom. Hehehee… we were so mean.