The next few years went by pretty fast. When my Mom left the last time, my Grandparents decided to adopt me. My Grandparents had to put an ad in the Alpena news to my Mom and anyone else who may have something to say about my adoption. I am not really sure the legal reasons why this ad had to be done, but I guess it had to be done. I remember my Grandpa asked me to sit down at the table because they, being my Grandma and Grandpa, wanted to talk to me about something. We all sat down at the kitchen table. Then my Grandpa says with his low voice something like "I think it would be best if we adopted you." Is that something you would like? I remember the feeling for just a brief second of "why now?" and “hmmmm....do I really want to be adopted?” And then my Grandpa says that it would help them out financially if I were adopted and they would pay me $50.00 a month if I agreed to it. After thinking of it more I did feel a little different about being adopted. How would people think of me? I knew my Grandpa was adopted and he said people treated him terribly because he was adopted when he was growing up so, as a teenager I wasn't sure how people my age would treat me if they knew about it. And then I thought, OK if they are going to pay me $50.00 a month...why not? And then my Grandpa asked me if I wanted to keep my last name Pahlkotter or change it to their last name Green. I chose to keep my last name because it would be too difficult to explain why my last name changed. Plus, I was actually really used to my long "odd" last name.
The adoption happened, there was no celebration, no new feeling about myself, no new feeling about how I felt about anything. I still called my Grandparents Grandma and Grandpa, called my Aunts Aunt, and my Mom Mom. And I think I only received one monthly payment? I didn't ask about the payment because I just thought that if they wanted to adopt me they probably really needed the money. I actually never brought up the adoption to anyone until I became an adult and had to fill out official paperwork, especially when I married my husband who was in the Military and it was time for me to get a passport. I just recently found out after my Aunt has been bothering me about not believing I was adopted, was my Grandparents never let my Aunts know I was adopted. From what I gather, my Grandpa didn’t want to let my Aunts know because they would have caused trouble for them and there would have been fights. Well, the “cause trouble” part came about 30 years late... my Aunt started harassing me this year about my adoption. Not exactly why she is so torn or worried about it now. She didn’t really care about my well-being when I was a kid.
I continued to work in St. Ignace that summer for the entire summer break. I worked at Big Boy for a while then upgraded to being a waitress at a White Fish restaurant to make more tips/ more money. I made enough money that year to buy my first car which was a light blue Chevy Citation. It was pretty funny looking, but it was in excellent condition! It ran really well and had brand new tires and the interior was in perfect condition. My friend and I used to call it the "Blue Egg". I loved it. It was actually really comfortable also with well-maintained seats.
My Junior year in High School was OK. I wasn't allowed to go back to St. Ignace to work that summer though. I am not sure why I was not allowed again, I made good money over the summers I worked up there and I didn't need any assistance buying my school clothes. Just wasn't allowed to go back.
Just before my senior year, my Grandpa sat me down again at the table and says "I think you should go to beauty school". He said, you are always doing someone's hair and I can just hear him saying "hell, you would even do my hair". Yes, there were times I would stand behind my Grandpa and curl his few hairs on his head with my curling iron. He would just sit there and let me. It was funny because one time I accidentally burned the top of his head. He had a big scab on the top of his head for a little while 😄. He then went on to tell me that I wouldn't have to worry about a job after I graduate and he said it was a successful career.
During my Senior year in Beauty School, I was not allowed to drive my own car to school every day because I could not afford the insurance while I was in school. My Grandparents could not afford to add me to their insurance either. So, my Grandpa took me to school every morning and drove me home every night. At 17 years old and at 17 it was so embarrassing to be driven to class every day. But thank God for Grandpa being a person who always wanted to be early to everything because I was almost always the first one to the school every day before others could see me :) and I made it to class every single day and was one of the first to finish my 1700 hours of training. The best thing about doing this was that I was able to graduate from both Beauty School and High School at the same time. The next best thing about this was my Grandpa loved me very much. He would do things to get on my nerves on the way to school every day but when I think about it now, I wish I could get some of those times back again. And for this man who had already had 4 girls of his own to raise, a man who was put through the gauntlet with my Mom and her problems to wake up every single morning to take me to school and then drive back to pick me up to ensure that I succeeded in life is pretty incredible. My Grandpa took me to Detroit to pass the “Boards” to be certified as a cosmetologist. I actually got offered a job before I graduated from Beauty School as a nail tech at a boutique in the mall. I still love nails and have my own nails done as a routine. And I can still do hair, I am not scared to cut my hair, & I still remember how to wrap a perm.
I don’t remember a whole lot of communication with my Mom during a couple of years. She probably called once in a while from Prison & she did call when I graduated. That was nice.
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