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My Life
2007
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| Home | My Life | 2007 |
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| This is My Life. (A Long Story Made Short) |
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| A Tragic Comedy. Or a Comic Tragedy, I'm not sure which. |
My name is Roberta Jasina. But who I am is "4321 Ashland." That was my home address on Detroit's lower east side for about 25 years. It's where I grew up. It's where I learned my place. And that place was low. My parents had four children. I was the third of four girls. My father was a factory worker. A "job setter" for Chrysler. My mother was a housewife, who couldn't keep house. Both of them grew up during "The Great Depression." Both of them were deeply affected by poverty. Niether one of them graduated from high school. Niether one of them had many teeth. Niether one of them was happy. After they grew up and got married, they continued to live an unhappy, emotionally impoverished life together. My father was at work constantly. And when he wasn't at work he was home. And if he was home, you could be pretty sure that he was drinking. Drinking and drinking and drinking. And threatening to kill my mother. My mother was home constantly. Constantly yelling. Constantly annoying my father. Constantly driving him to drink. I worried about them, constantly. I thought for sure that any day...I would come home and the police would be there and she would be dead. And he would go to prison. He told us that this was going to happen. Fear and worry were my constant companions at 4321 Ashland. What do OTHER little kids think about? What do normal kids worry about? Sometimes, I wonder. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I excelled in school. Was always in the top ten of my class. I was the first female student elected president of my class at Servite High. I got a job in a drug store when I was 16. Fleming's Drugs. 13030 Mack Ave. at Dickerson. It was in a rough part of town. We were robbed by "gangs" at gunpoint twice in one month. The second robbery was the night before my 19th birthday. The thugs had us all lie down on the floor, face down, and they told us they were going to kill us all. They had sawed off shotguns. It was the night before my birthday. I was scared to death. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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