Growing Up With My Parents...

I was born May 26th, 1967 at Ohio Valley Hospital ("One of the best hospitals in the city... isn't in the city") in Mckees Rocks... about 2000 feet from where I live now... and adopted by Dominic and Dorothy Pezzula. They told us we were adopted early on... but I never had any details. My Mom was pretty protective of information throughout the years and despite the 'free love' 60's and early 70's, things were kept hush-hush in families. My parents had already adopted my 'brother' Dan when I was born and then they adopted me as well. My mother always wanted a girl (and she kind of got one, sort of). I was a handful and a hyper-active child (now diagnosed as ADD/ADHD) but all I ever got as treatment was some Aspergum and a Flintstone vitamin (no Ritalin yet (so sad for her)). My Dad worked on the P&LE Railroad and was gone most of the time. When he came home, I remember we would get all cleaned up, go out to the car in the driveway to head to K-Mart and a steak supper and we'd hear the phone ring and he would be called back in to work (no wonder I was so skinny... that and growing up on ketchup sandwiches). My Mom didn't drive and didn't work, so she was always at home with us (a recipe for disaster). Although I was closer to my Mom, we were a lot alike... sarcastic, anal-retentive, energetic... and that led to a clash of the titans. She used to pick fights with me (which usually led to me being bratty and saying something like "why did you pick me?" and "return me and get your money back") because I clean when I am mad. Years after I left home, she would call me to ask me where I had put things in her house. My Dad, as some of you know who have met him, is a Saint. The most simple, honest, hard-working, unselfish person you will ever meet. It was his job to provide and that's just what he did. While I was living in Philadelphia, my mother had a brain aneurysm burst in 1994 and died soon after. It was the day after her funeral when I was talking with my cousins that I decided to ask my Dad about the facts surrounding my adoption.... (more after the break)(insert Shamwow commercial here, followed by 'The Girls of Mckees Rocks Gone Wild' video ad)