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Indiana (see Steel Mill/Jackson 5/CA ..)

I'm surprized I didn't see any stories about Gary, Indiana (NW Indiana by Lake Michigan), the area where I grew up and lived a long time. So here comes something.  So you'll undertstand things better about The Jackson family:

It was really cold back in wintertime, when the Jackson Five came to be born and it was really hot and humid too in the summer.  Mosquitoes were the enemy at night poking for your blood, getting your toes, fingers, and lips while you slept under the covers; the ones that came into the house. Later on in the 60's they were defeated by fog trucks going down the streets.

Below zero weather sometimes was common every winter back then. Frostbite (weather in the teens), your ears, toes, and fingers pained while you waited for a bus to school, anywhere; wearing gloves, shoes, it didn't matter.

Some families back then had no car or phone even, did Michael's? Most homes had a black and white TV. To help them survive, get through each day.

Michael had no childhood?  Everyone does, even Jesus. Listen to his dad, I think he said Michael did have a childhood. Michael had brothers and sisters at least, some kids had none. Everyone I think threw Snowballs and had fun in the snow and we had a lot of snow back then. If you didn't have Christmas, you saw and got it from all around you from everyone. The lord was there, for everyone.

Summer had its own fun. Swimming someplace, at least kids went under the yard sprinkler; fooling around with the house hose too and squirt guns. Running around the street and house, all kids done that including Michael. Ask his brothers. Little League was common, at least baseball catch, and Michael lived in back of a high school, plenty of room to play.

His dad worked, later 2 jobs, and that meant he (and his wife)needed quiet sleep and some quiet house time, so the back of the house was the best place there for the Jackson kids to go, for a while, and play. I think they did, a lot. Michael and the rest naver had a bike? They had no garage but they did have a basement (furnace and washer...).

Now maybe you can understand things better.  The transister radio was the big thing for kids in the 1960's and I think the Jackson kids had one at least, from their parents. Michael had relatives around Gary area too. Ever see a photo of an unhappy Jackson 5?

We were called middle class back then (poor like back then and had a poor like childhood).  A parent given quarter was like a thousand dollars to me (us children). Maybe Michael didn't realize what all he and most others didn't have and missed as a child untill he became rich and famous, later. Children were fed (no t-bone steaks) and clothed good back then by their parents. That's what mattered most to Joe and Katherine Jackson besides discipline.

Dave, 
daviddddd@yahoo.com

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