And He Blew the House Down

The move from the big house followed not long after her father went off to prison, at least in Mary’s recall. She was only in kindergarten at the time so being just a wee child the space of moments could have been a year or two in reality. Mary’s new surroundings were a minute brick bungalow located in Fort Erie. It seemed to Mary it was situated close to railway tracks.
It was a non- descript street with many small houses duplicating hers. There was one two story older house up the street where a nice woman lived. She taught Mary how to thread a needle. That is all she remembers of this woman besides hiding under her front latticed porch; nothing more.
Her own home seemed to be little even in Mary’s remembrance with two small bedrooms and one in the basement where her brother slept. There was a bunk bed and a single cot for her and her two siblings in one bedroom. Her mother had her own room.
Just down the street from Mary's house was a little corner store. Mary remembers stealing candy and sitting on the curb outside the building eating her prize. Unfortunately, her two siblings snitched on her and told their mother. Mary never ever did that again.
It was in the town of Fort Erie where her mother taught in a local catholic grade school. Mary's mother put her in kindergarten even though Mary was only four years old. Unfortunately, for Mary, the principal, the Mother Superior of the school, initially unaware of Mary's age decided against Mary’s mother's better wishes at the end of her first year that Mary was to be kept back in kindergarten another year because of her youth. As a little child this affected Mary detrimentally. Her siblings and those around her laughed at her and made her feel stupid for having to repeat this nursery level year.
Mother Superior and her own mother seemed to constantly fight over Mary. The next year when Mary’s mom decided Mary was old enough to make her first communion she got her all dressed up to participate in the church’s celebration. This was all done without consulting the Mother Superior. The posttraumatic stress of that day stayed with Mary all her life. For you see, on that momentous day, Mother Superior, adhering to the fact that little Mary was just too young for this procedure caught little Mary by the arm as she approached the altar and dragged her back to her pew. An argument pursued between the two women with Mary standing between them looking up sobbing. Mary never did recall when she actually received her first communion. As a result of these two incidents Mary struggled with her intelligence as well as with the authorities in the church throughout her life.
The rest of the period of living in the little house in Fort Erie was quite unmemorable except when he appeared on the scene. Mary couldn’t tell you when Bud moved in but after a while a man came to live with them. He was Mary’s mother’s friend. He was a handsome blue eyed man that Mary, though only four, liked immediately. In fact, because she was lacking a father figure he filled this need more than adequately. Vague memories dot this period of laughing in the shower with Bud and having him pull her tooth out by tying a string to a door. Martha added that he told them all stories of the big bad wolf. Where he slept Mary knew and saw but could never tell.
All she will say is that one day the church told her mother he had to go and so they picked up and moved to Toronto away from Bud and away from the Mother Superior.