Beating The Odds

I have a neighbor and a good friend a few houses down the street who is one of the good guys. He gets to wear the white hat. Now I can't let him read this because he would get the big head and his hat wouldn't fit.

He moved here from Texas a few years ago. Before that he lived in California and New York and places in between. He worked at some jobs that kept him on the road. At times his wife would meet him at the airport with a suitcase full of clean clothes and take the one he had home with her.

Now Jonesy was raised in southern Illinois. There's an old saying the folks in central Illinois are fond of saying. " Well I'll be dipped in Southern Illinois."

Now my wife is always giving Jonesy a hard time, but he gives in back more then he gets. The real story here is about an individual who made it against all the odds of living with an alcoholic mother and no father. He now says," "Hard work never hurt anyone." He started young.

During the time he was living with his mother he had a Sunday morning paper route. This was before he reached the fifth grade. He carried his papers in a two wheeled cart. After picking up his papers, his first stop was the Catholic Church just about the time Mass was going on. He was not a Catholic and I sense his church was The Wild Side as he grew older. He would complete his first sales there after Mass and then he would start on established route. If the customer left money out for the paper, they would get a paper. No money, no paper. He would make a second stop to fill his cart and then complete his route. Then to the paper pick up point to turn in the money based of the price and the number of papers sold.

On his way home he would sometimes have to stop at the local tavern, knock on the window for his mother to come out to take about 90% of his money. If she wasn't there, he would fork it over at home.

When he was about 11 years old he went to live with his sister who was 15 years older and now married. He no longer had his paper route. He got himself a job mowing yards for a group of customers once a week. He purchased a mower on credit which he pulled behind his bike. His brother-in-law cosigned for him. He felt good about buying a mower for his business on credit at the age of 11 years. He still sent money to his mother to live (drink) on. His parents were divorced before he was born. He has never seen his dad.

While he was in high school, his sister moved to another town. He moved with them but soon
came back to his home town and lived with foster parents. Any time he got into mischief or
trouble his foster would hold out his hand for the car keys. Sometimes he would he would keep them for as long as six months. You never ask for them back. He would return them when he was ready.

During all this time he was still sending his mother money. At this point his foster parents wanted to adopt him. His mother would agree to the adoption for a large cash payment to her.
At this point his foster father put a stop to Jonesy sending any more money to his mother. He
still bailed her out of debt in later years. He always had a job. Sometimes two or three.

Then Uncle Sam took him under his wing for two years during which he got married and soon had two young ones. When he was about 25 years old the State of Illinois was going to force him and his brother to support their mother. Jonesy's lawyer indicated that the only was to avoid this was to prove to the judge that she was an unfit mother. He said that was the hardest thing he ever had to do. He plead his case and won when he told the judge that she had tried to sell him. His brother had to pay until he passed away. His mother lived until she was a couple of weeks shy of 100 years old.

Can it be true or was true in 19 65 that the State if Illinois can force a child to support his parents and their drinking problems. The story has two endings. The main subject of the story is ok and is leading a normal productive life. His sister didn't fare as well. She will hardly leave the house and will go into the back bedroom when someone comes to the house for fear they might hve know her mother.