Tough Guys

Jack has a cold. Even so, he was a tough guy walking around the LA Auto Show over the weekend. “I want to play trouble,” he said when he hit the show floor. He went from car to car, looking for open driver doors. If someone were sitting in a car he wanted to try, he would stand too close and stare at them until they moved out of his way. If he saw another kid heading for an open minivan door, he would hustle to beat them to it. See what I mean? Tough.

That night, however, he spent the entire night coughing and kicking. Then, around 3 AM, it came: “Mommy, my ear hurts.” We spend Sunday laying around, trying to get him to rest. He was bored. We went out to look at tile.

After Jack’s nap, his ear was still hurting, and we made the decision to take him to Urgent Care. He does not like going to the doctor, and he was not sufficiently prepped for this trip. We had not been reading the doctor book, and this was a doctor’s office we had never been to. We checked in and were almost immediately called by the nurse. Jack was quietly apprehensive at first, but when we left Daddy in the Waiting Room and went in, he started to cry. He was trying to be brave, but it was just too much.

So, after the nurse poked him for a few minutes, we got Daddy and waited for the doctor in the treatment room. Although he would not sit on the chair with the paper on it, he waited quietly on Mommy’s lap for nearly ½ hour. He went potty 3 times, and when we came back from the bathroom the third time, the doctor was in the room.

The doctor was actually a PA named Pedro Pena. He and Jack looked each other in the eye, and began to talk. Mr. Pena asked him a few questions. Jack made the decision that he could trust him, and agreed to sit on the chair with the paper – on Mommy’s lap. The exam went great. There was no terrified screaming, as we have had in the past. Mr. Pena did a wonderful job, and Jack even cracked a smile at the end.

See what I mean? Tough. But now comes 10 days of the Bubble Gum Medicine….

His name is William Jack May

We call him Jack. His real name is William Jack May. He is named William J May after my father. Dad never got to meet Jack, but they share the same blue eyes and bad attitude. Dad was a tough guy and Jack thinks he is too. Dad is Buried at Jefferson Barracks Memorial Cemetary in St. Louis County. I took Jack to visit so I could introduce Jack to Dad.

The name Jack is for my Mother's only brother, Jack King. He was named for his father, my grandfather, Jack King from Ireland. I met my uncle Jack briefly in 1960. My Mom loved him, even with his faults. Jack was not a tough guy. He was drafted into the Army during WW II and was discharged dishonorably. Jack was too scared to fight. The Army called him a coward. Ashamed, he ran away to Chicago and lived the life of a street person. Both my Mom and my Aunt used to mail Jack money, to a Post Office Box in Chicago. Jack drank to face each day and his life was hopeless. My mother cried every time she talked about Jack. She said he was sweet and wonderful but not tough enough to deal with the life he was dealt.

So, this is the beginning of the story. Jack May comes from a background of immigrant poor people who settled in Belleville Illinois. They came there for the work, in the foundries and stove factories at the end of the 19th century. Jack King and his wife Anna Flutie, from Ireland. Thomas May and his wife Nora Leiner from Ireland and Germany. These are Jacks paternal Great grandparents.

Pam is Jack's mother. His maternal Great Grandmother, Billie Boone is still alive. She can trace her family back to Daniel Boone and the frontier settling of Illinois and Kentucky. Jack's other maternal Great grandparents were the Olroyds. Old English.