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Chicago Christmas Stories, South Side Edition
Learning Your Mom is A For Real Bad B*tch at Christmas
All the girl had on was her red thigh-high Christmas boots
“Some days she has no idea how she’ll do it. But every single day. It still gets done.” — Anonymous
We always knew our mother was not like the other mothers in the neighborhood.
Homes in our neighborhood did not have air conditioning. It was not unusual for entire families to sit on their porches in the evenings rather than in their houses. Our family did so. No one else’s mother sat outside after midnight. It was dangerous to be on your porch after midnight. My mom never came in until she was ready to go in the house. Sometimes that was two or three in the morning. No one ever bothered her.
Other kids got told not to fight. We got told don’t be aggressive and don’t start a fight, but if someone started a fight with any of the six of us, they had to fight us all. If there were a fight, all of us would jump in and beat up the aggressor. People soon learned that if you fought one Crowe, you would have to fight them all, big and small.
Our next-door neighbor rented her upstairs to a young woman whose husband abused her. Every weekend, he would smack her…
