And So It Goes

Ok, back, this is harder to write than I thought, no the thinking is easy, the putting down into words is hard. If I could only type as I think then volumes would unfold.
At three years old, my father was giving me a bath. We lived in Webster Groves, St. Louis, Mo on Gore Street. I will get back to the bath. It is there stuck in my brain...and memory, and soul, and heart. My father, Hugh Jennings, He must have been 42 years old. You see, I was the youngest of five children. My oldest brother Mack was 13 years older than me, Scott 8 years older, Priscilla, 5 years older, Tom, 3.5 years older. I could figure out their ages here and may do so in the editing. Ha I can barely write; will I edit? My grandparents lived down the street from us; Granddaddy Tom Secoy and Mother Mollie Secoy; only a few houses away. The bath..which only exists in my memory, visual and physically but everyone else tells me I must have dreamed it. The bath. My daddy was giving me a bath. I was laying back in the water when my daddy placed his broad hand on my chest and pushed me under the depths. My eyes spread open stinging-like in the water as they were full of fear and what-the hell-is happening!. I could see his blurry face staring down at me; looking back into my stingy gaping eyes. Then he released me. I immediately climbed out of the tub, stretching my little legs over the edge to reach the floor on the other side as my father sat still in the same kneeled position. I ran to the front room of the house where my mother sat in a large comfy chair and exclaimed ,"Dad tried to drown me!" several times over. I could see my father pacing next to me about five feet away; back and forth back and forth, as my mother said, "Your father loves you he would never hurt you." And that was the end of that, no cuddling, no reassurance from my father, no help from my mother. I had to stuff it in order to go own. Just another day as a three year old. These were my protectors, my parents, what options were available to me but to continue to trust them and understand that my father wouldn't hurt me, he loves me and I needed them. That was the beginning and so it goes.