“He Comes With the House!”

~ Elizabeth

Reading about the possibility that Donald Trump would refuse to leave the White House(on the right) to allow President-Elect Joe Biden to move in, I thought back to 1955 and the house on the left. Our next door neighbor’s aunt had died and left him her house. It was an enormous place, filled to the brim with her hoards including ceiling high piles of old newspapers, and the neighbor wanted nothing to do with the place. Meanwhile with my mother expecting her fourth child and us living in a small two bedroom house, my parents were willing to buy the place, hoards and all. He only had two stipulations. He didn’t want to have to go in the house himself. And we had to continue to let Norman live there.

Norman, an odd man in his late 30’s, occupied a bedroom on the third floor. Perhaps he was the last resident of the boarding house that our neighbor’s aunt ran. He was a small man perpetually smelling of cigarette smoke. My desperate parents took up the offer and we acquired a new house and a new boarder. He paid no rent and made his own meals.

Norman gave me the creeps, though I couldn’t have told you why. He regularly baby sat us, apparently having earned my parents’ undeserved trust. One evening as we sat on the sofa watching television he bent over me and started kissing me. No fool I, even at seven, I pushed him away in disgust. Then I told my mother. Norman left. The house was ours for the first time.

Let’s hope it takes much less than that appalling scene for Trump to move out!

33 thoughts on ““He Comes With the House!””

  7. Oh Elizabeth, that is a nasty experience to go through in childhood. I’m so glad you took the action you did!
    I have had to counsel far too many adults & teens whose childhood innocence was stolen by adult perpetrators…far too many.
    Bless you,
    Jennifer

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      1. Definitely an unusual course of action for one so young with an authority figure, such as an adult babysitter.
        But one that I truly applaud Elizabeth! As knowing predatory behavioral patterns it would have escalated.
        Your actions prevented further abuse, not only for yourself but for your siblings too.
        And I’m so glad your parents listened to you & took their own course of action to protect you all!
        Do you know if law inforcement was brought in?

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  9. He bent over and started what…..? I’m so sorry you experienced that!

    I don’t understand how any man looks at a child in that way. Has there ever been any in-depth studies on the causes of pedophilia? It blows my mind every time I hear an incident. Grown men started hitting on me by about 6th grade and that’s considering that I was late to puberty.

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