Hunting Lodge

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, a customer of my dad’s invited our family to come to a hunting lodge for a week with his family. (Dad was a sales engineer for a die cast metal products company.) The lodge was somewhere around the Detroit area, I think. The family’s name was Paterick (Jack and Polly). They had five children. I only remember one of their names – a girl called Libby. It was the first time I had ever heard of that nickname for the name Elizabeth. The main thing I remember from that week was riding snowmobiles through the woods. I don’t remember whether Dad and Mr. Paterick did any hunting at all while we were there. I’m pretty sure they had been hunting at that lodge before.

The other thing I remember about this event was that Mom threatened me and Rick to be sure to not get into a fight. He and I spent our entire childhood trying to kill each other, apparently. I don't remember if we got in a fight or not while we were at the hunting lodge. (I think we did, on the very last day. But I don't remember for sure.

I remember the last fight I ever had with Rick --

By that time, I was about 14 years old, and Rick was 12. He was taller than me, with longer arms and legs. And I remember that he got me kind of cornered in the little hallway by the front door of our house. I knew he was going to punch me in the face (which he had never done before). So I raised one leg and planted my foot right in the middle of his chest and shoved him back against the wall.

When he hit that wall, I could see in his eyes that he suddenly "came to" -- came out of his blind rage and realized what was happening. He just looked at me for a couple seconds, then dropped his arms and just walked away. That was the last time we ever fought.