Peggy

My friend's mother's name was Peggy. She was one of the funniest people I knew at that time. She drove a green Opal Cadet with a hatchback. I had never seen a hatchback. My mother drove a big long white Cadillac with 4 doors and fins. I hated it. Peggy would take us to the store (which was one of our daily rituals) and let us sit on the tail gate. She would hit a bump and the tail gate would come down and hit us on the heads.
She was so lazy that the baby learned to sit on the vents to dry her diaper when it was wet. Babies wore cloth diapers back in the day. Peggy thought the baby (Jodie) was so smart. Uh...she had to be, her mother was lazy as sin.
We used to love to go downtown and shop by ourselves. One Saturday, we dressed up. I wore Peggy's shoes and one of her dresses. I thought I looked divine! My feet were actually killing me, but I would not admit it. In fact, I crammed my feet into shoes that were too little for years because I was so embarrassed by my big feet.
Peggy didn't cook a whole lot, but one of her best meals was her Hungarian Goulash. She also made Waldorf Salad her own way. Basically it was apples, bananas, pecans, mayonnaise and a little sugar. I loved it!! I am not sure why we ever ate anything in that house though. When I'd spend the night, we'd go into the kitchen in the middle of the night, turn on the light, and thousands and thousands of roaches would scatter! I have NEVER seen that many bugs in my life before then or since then. (How did I lie down at night and sleep? I guess because all the roaches were in the kitchen). The house was filthy. Our feet would be like "grocery store" feet when we left there (we went barefoot all the time).
One night I spent the night with Teresa and woke up to find her older sister, who we were all afraid of, physically fighting Peggy. She was jerking the rollers out of Peggy's hair, and she was slapping her. I was so afraid I jumped up and ran home. I cried and cried. My heart was broken, but I was terrified. I had never seen family violence. It really scarred me.