Why I can’t stand my extended family -Part 2

After my first experience with my Aunt Gladys mentioned in https://medium.com/@dreamer9177/why-i-cant-stand-my-extended-family-f402ecdbefa1 I wanted to fast forward a year to 1972. There was a film that all us kids thought was the best thing ever called “The Doberman Gang” about criminals who trained a pack of Dobermans to rob a bank. Everyone is school talked about how cool it would be to own a Doberman, but since they were a purebred dog, most people I knew were never going to have the chance to own one.

That summer of 1972, I was 8 years old, and Mom fell into the trap of listening to Gladys once again. Gladys had organized a family reunion at her house. I swore I would never go there again, but Mom forced me to go, and Dad went along to keep things from getting out of hand. It was a good thing that Dad was there.

The house and yard were packed with people, most of them I had no idea about. Mom tried pointing out a brother or sister that she recognized from pictures that Gladys showed her. I was not comfortable at all, but I tried to find any kids my age to hang out with to pass the time. I found some of my second cousins who lived in the same town. Judy, their mother, was my first cousin and the daughter of Gladys. I had always gotten along with Judy and her kids seemed to get along with me up until that afternoon. Once again, Gladys would relish a conflict with my Dad, and that sealed the fate of ever being close with Judy or her kids because Gladys was a manipulative bitch and nothing happened with Judy or the kids without Gladys’ approval.

But, back to the reunion. As us kids were playing and horsing around, we got close to a Winnebago that belonged to one of my uncles who I didn’t know. We didn’t touch anything and didn’t try to go inside, but the screen door was open and when we got close, two Dobermans lunged towards the door with teeth bared.

I was raised on a farm and I was leery of dogs that were protective, but I wasn’t scared. In fact, my first thought was “Holy Shit! There are 2 live Dobermans.” My uncle approached and tried the “Don’t get too close or I will let them rip your head off” speech. Dad happened to overhear that because he came over when he heard the dogs barking. The next thing I knew, Dad had my uncle lifted off his feet by the throat against the side of his Winnebago and said, “If those dogs harm any of those kids, especially my son, I will END YOU.”

Gladys arrived and accused my Dad of causing a fight. Dad told Gladys that he wouldn’t have any shit from her. Mom came over and asked what happened, Dad told her, my cousins told the same story that I did which was that the dogs had lunged suddenly at us. One of my cousins, a girl a year younger than me was actually crying because the dogs had scared her. Mom asked Gladys why she accused Dad of doing anything other than protecting children from the dogs and an insensitive uncle who had literally threatened to loose the dogs on us. Gladys continued to blame Dad for the disturbance, so Dad took me by the hand and said that we were going home. He told Mom in front of her “family” that she was being manipulated, and that she could call to get picked up when she was ready to come home.

Mom looked Gladys in the eye and said, “We’re leaving” so we did. Just another example of the screwed up extended family that I came from.