Connie Wanna Penny?

**(Picture of Connie and Alta, who were born two-weeks apart)

The Lord has been good to me in blotting out all those traumatic memories before the age of five. That way Mom and Dad could fill in all those years with nothing but wonderful tales of babyhood and I’d have to take them at their word. Truthfully, I can’t imagine how life with a sweet, innocent, highly intelligent girl-child could be anything but a glorious experience. But come to think of it, that wasn’t how the story went; it seems to me there are a few family pictures of a “not-so-sweet” girl-child in action, too.

**(Pictures of Connie in the mud, and Connie being a pain in the rear)

I was told many times about my first contest and what an unwilling participant I was. Because I was two-weeks younger than my cousin Alta, it seems everyone in The Family expected me to do everything she did at least within two weeks. Mom always felt I should go at my own pace and that Dad’s family shouldn’t expect me to keep up with Alta. Daddy felt otherwise; at least on this occasion.

I was about a year old and because I was Daddy’s first child and we were visiting his family, he wanted to show me off; however, I was in no mood for games. It seems Alta stood on her head in front of everyone at Grandma’s house. Whether this was literally accomplished or just figuratively, I was never told, but the fact remains that she DID it! So Daddy, who saw the sun rise and set in little Connie, volunteered her head for “standing on.”

Connie thinks, “Ho! Ho! Nothing doing!”

Daddy says, “Come on, Connie. Alta got a penny for her little trick.”
Connie thinks again, “Hey, I can just take the penny, but no tricks to earn it.”

But Daddy says, “Nothing doing! Stand on your head if you want a penny.” Nothing ever comes cheap, but I still refuse and decide to see if tears would help. Ha! Lots of tears, but still Daddy says, “No headstand, no penny.”

**(Picture of Connie with Grandma Kemsley, the matron of "The Family")

Now there are plenty of tears and Daddy decides to paddle my wee little bottom because I refuse to abide by his child labor laws. Finally, Mommy can’t stand it any longer and comes to my rescue! She doesn’t like seeing everybody pick on poor little Connie and tells everybody to leave me alone and whisks me out Grandma’s front door. Boy, was she mad! I still wanted a penny.

**(Picture of "The Family" at Clifton's Cafeteria in L.A.-Mom standing at the back)

That’s pretty much how she felt about all us kids and “The Family.” She never really believed she fit in and stayed pretty much in the background whenever she could. I didn’t understand her feelings until I had in-laws of my own, and for no good reason, I was a little intimidated by them, too.