Wuv, twue wuv.

My title comes from one of my favorite movies "The Princess Bride" (I thought I should clarify just in case you live under a rock or are my best friend Kimberly).
What a great movie!  I mean who doesn't want the sweet farm boy Wesley that is there for our every "wish" with JUST enough Dread Pirate Roberts in him to keep things interesting? 
That's exactly what I want, minus the King trying to kill me and my hero.  I also wouldn't mind my Wesley/Dread Pirate Roberts to look a little less like a goof and more like Mark Wahlberg.  Is this too much to ask?  I think not!  Is that what I got? Read on....

I couldn't have been older than maybe 8 or 9 years old when my best friend (at the time) Cindy and I decided to walk to the library which was on the corner of Bailey St. and S. Union St in Lawrence Massachusetts.  This was several blocks away from our where we lived.
As we were headed down the street Cindy's older sister (by 5 or 6 years) stopped us and asked us where we were going.  When we told her our destination she began to taunt us by saying over and over, "Don't go down Bailey St. the Hatch's will get you."

The Hatch's were somewhat infamous in that area as being the "dangerous, crazy, scary" family.  Although I had never met them, their reputation had preceded them.  Stories of gang fights in the streets and wild boys ran rampert in our town.  I remember hearing about them beating a boy just for walking down "their" street.  Now whether or not these stories were actually true was a totally different story. 

Cindy and I looked at her older sister, laughed, and told her we weren't scared and to leave us alone.  We proceeded down the street until it curved just enough for us to be out of sight.  We turned to each other and siad, "Want to go to the park instead" and off we went.  This memory was buried for many years, as a matter of fact...I forgot the Hatch's even existed (since I NEVER went down Bailey St.)

Fast forward to 1985, I was 16 and living a not so ordinary life (we'll save that for future blogs).  Anyway, I started working part time at Riley's Roast Beef (the BEST) in order to pay rent.  One of my co-workers was a girl I knew as an acquaintance in high school.  Her and I became closer while working together and one Saturday afternoon she asked me to come to her house for a birthday party.  I agreed and the two of us went shopping (at Zayres) for a birthday gift for the 1year old birthday boy, Mikey.

After shopping Marie brought me to her house, a three decker apartment building in Lawrence.  Immediately upon entering the apartment I was speechless.  The entire apartment was decorated and was overflowing with people.  There were more presents for this one little boy than I had seen at my house at Christmas.  It was very busy and chaotic, yet family oriented and welcoming (Everything is relative).

I was sitting at the end of the room in a rocking chair next to my friend just enjoying "people watching" and watching the little ones play, not too mention a little overwhelmed by the amount of people that were there.
It wasn't too long after this that I started to look for Mikey, the birthday boy.  As I sat in my chair, I looked and thought, "that's Amy, Jason, Brant, Shane, Shaun, Kenny, etc... but no Mikey".

I swear I was just about to turn to my friend and ask where Mikey was, when I looked up and saw my friends mother standing in the doorway on the other side of the room staring at me with a slightly crazed smile.  She was holding a doll (not even a cabbage patch) by the hands and began walking towards me with the doll and saying, "You haven't kissed the birthday boy".

I looked at Marie (my friend) as if looking for a way out. She smiled, leaned in and whispered, "Don't call it a doll, she'll slap you."  With this I'm sure my face went white and I was a little queezy.  I of course kissed the doll (Mikey) and wished him a happy birthday.

Since I had no where else to go, and was extremely freaked out I asked Marie if I could take a nap on her bed.  She said yes, so off to sleep it away I went.

I woke up hours later feeling refreshed, still confused, but refreshed.  As I rolled over to get up, I was HORRIFIED to find a man sleeping in the bed next to me.    This was her older brother who had left the party right before I went to nap to take his girlfriend home. 

Yup, you guessed it, this is the man that I would eventually marry (twice) and divorce (twice).  Ahhhhh, wuv, twu wuv!  (way more to this story to come!)  And by the way....all the stories were true!

So, Cindy and I were deterred from our little trip down Bailey St. years earlier with the threat, "Don't go down Bailey St. the Hatch's will get you."  We didn't go!  We were scared...we DIDN'T GO!
But, the Hatch's still got me.