Ken Solin

My father worked, but couldn't pay his bills. I wore hand-me-down clothing and worked to earn money, but I didn't mind, especially since none of my boyhood friends had money, either. Being broke wasn't something I held against my father. But the fallout from our family's financial woes was that my father took his financial frustrations out on me. He wailed on a small boy as if somehow I was responsible for his plight. This went on for years, and my mother's contribution was silence, which may have been her only protection. My sister hid. No one in my family has ever mentioned this violence, and no one has ever acknowledged it ever happened, either. That denial has caused me more pain than the actual events.
-Ken Solin
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