MarxLennon's Gratuitous Image Page

Well, before we start on the subject of my siblings, I'd like to set the record straight...I am not, nor have I ever been, embarrassed by dad's local fame. I just object to people using me as a means to meet him. I'm very proud of my dad. It hasn't always been easy to be the daughter of a local celebrity, but dad loves his job, and I love him. It's typical of Levi to assume I'd be embarrassed. After all, he doesn't know the first thing about me, and believes the worst of everyone.

Since we're on the subject of Levi, let's start with him. As he said, he mostly spent the summers with us, with some periods of time during the school year for holidays and such. Sometimes his brother, Stephen, came with him. I've always been much closer to Stevie (as we call him), than I have ever been to Levi. Sometimes while Levi was with mom and dad, I'd go to his house for a couple of weeks. His mom is very cool. Like my parents, she's always encouraged my drawings and doodles. She even bought me an easel and assorted art supplies so I could draw while I'm there. Some of my stuff is on her walls. She says she'll buy the first drawing when I have the first showing of my artwork. There's no doubt in her mind that someday it'll happen.

Tony's pretty great, too. He loves to take me to art galleries when I'm in town, and has given me most of the books I have on various artists and their work. We usually go on a little road trip and check out different art galleries within a 100 mile radius. When I graduated from high school, Angel and Tony's gift to me was a four day trip to New York so I could go to the art museums. They even went with me. I had a wonderful time.

Levi may not have been aware of it, but while there wasn't a lot of contact between dad and Angel, there was plenty of contact between mom and Angel. They both thought it was important that Levi have the same rules at both houses. Since mom and Angel have the same views on child rearing, it wasn't hard for them to work together on things. Same went when one of us went to Angel and Tony's. We knew we had the same rules, and for the most part, followed them. The punishment was different depending on where we were, but the same things would get us in trouble in both places.

I imagine life wasn't as easy for Levi as it was for me, Laura, Margie and Stevie. We all had parents who lived together, and Levi kind of bounced between two households. However, it couldn't have been easy for mom and Angel to put aside any hostility they may have felt to work together to ensure he'd have stability. Levi has always had two families who supported him in everything he's ever done. Believe me, that hasn't always been easy.

Levi has always had a rampageous imagination. When he wasn't thinking up new and exciting ways to torture me during the summer, he was telling wild stories about who he was and where he came from. When he was a teenager, he decided he was the great-great-great grandson of Haile Selassie, grew dreds and claimed to be a Rastafarian. He even got busted for pot and accused the local police of religious intolerance and violating his constitutional rights.

Well, Dad tells me I've been "on" long enough. So, see you next week.

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