Mom and Dad

Walking down the streets of Denton I began to notice that Mom was shorter than most other ladies.  She wore  her hair combed up in back,  piled atop her head, held in place by decorative combs, and she had very good posture.  She smiled and laughed a lot, and when she did housework she sort of sang, a vocalized humming, la la la without any real tune.  She could lose her temper, but was mostly kind and loving.  She often seemed to forget I was there, staring into space and not responding to questions.  If I finally got her attention she would just laugh gaily, dismissing any concerns I may have voiced.
In his uniform, with his first Sergeant stripes, Dad was an authority figure.  Once he took me to his office, and all the younger enlisted mean were very wary in his presence.  He was also shorter than the other soldiers.  He had a big grin, rendered kind of goofy by the big gap between his two front teeth.
When he got home from the training base he would start drinking beer.  I was urged to play outside.
Sometimes other Army friends and their wives would come over on Friday night.  In my bedroom I could hear them talking and laughing.  In the morning there was always a mess of empty bottles and snacks of food on plates.  I helped myself to the snacks and sometimes tried a sip of beer from a bottle not emptied, then I went into their bedroom to say that I was going outside to play.
If it were a Sunday they would make sure I was dressed in my suit and send me off to Sunday School at the neighborhood church, but on Saturday I wore old clothes and went outside.
I also liked to sit and read.  I had discovered Classic Comics, which were comic book versions of classic novels.  My favorite was Les Miserables, mostly because of the scenes of Jean Valjean running through the sewers.  I also liked Robin Hood.  Actually I read almost everything I could get my hands on, from Thornton W Burgess to books featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.  Dad offered to read to me, but I said I would rather do it myself.
There was not much interaction between my parents and me,  they mostly left me on my own.