Mom was in the hospital for pneumonia repeatedly
1. time she heard the priest say you couldn't survive pneumonia x times. She decided if she was going to die, she was going to ride an elevator first. So she left her room in her dressing gown and slippers got into the elevator and rode up and down - until a neighbor looking out her window saw this small figure in the elelvator - which was a cage on the outside of the building going up and down and called the nurse's station. This was in the middle of a Canadian winter.
2. Uncle Press (The doctor) stopped by and told Mom he was going to send her home that day. Nurse went into the room a little later to help her pack up. Mom was gone, mom's suit case was gone. Nurse calls Nanna and says, "Peg look out your window and see if you see Gerry. Press told her she could go home today and she left." Sure enough Mom was walking down the road (with street clothes, and winter coat, boots etc) home.
Dad -
In the 1950's they shut down the public pools in the summer to prevent the spread of polio. So Dad and his friends went swimming the the bayous - Yuck Yuck Yuck
Sis -
was in Kinder, I was in 4th. The bully that made my life miserable tried to take on sis. She told him "I'm not scared of you. I'll knock your teeth out if you touch me and no one is going to get mad at a 5 yo for fighting with a 9 yo." By the time the secertary got into the hallway Sis was chasing bully down the hall - holding something (sis says she just grabbed something that was in the hallway) like a baseball bat. (Sis was right she didn't get into trouble.)
Me -
There was a neighborhood dust up. I caught a boy a year younger than me (but bigger), sitting on sis punching her in the face. I pulled him off of her and gave him a black eye. His mom brought him back down to our house and demanded I be punished for hitting him. Dad questioned sis, cousin c, and me. He showed angry Mom sis's bruises. She insisted that we be punished. Dad told her to get off our property.
I was doing my homework and heard a scream from a front yard. I saw Steven (2 years younger than me but again bigger) attacking Erica. (6 years younger than me - 4 years younger than Stephen and small for her age). I flew out the front door screaming for Mom. I tackled Steven knocking him off Erica. Sis and Mom grabbed Erica and got her inside. I hit him a couple of times and pushed him away from me so I could retreat inside. Dad got home and the whole family trooped over and demanded I be punished for "attacking their son" It was ok for him to attack Erica (insert very bigoted reason basically this child killed Jesus) but I should have submitted to him because I was a girl. Dad told them to NEVER step foot on our property again. (My parents tried to get Erica's parents to press criminal charges but they were afraid upsetting neighbors about kid stuff)
I never did figure out what religion these people practiced but I stayed as far way from them as possible. (Both households practiced the same religion). Girls were supposed to let boys beat them up - and any type of imagination games/fiction books were going to send you to hell. So was my short hair.