I was born in Oshkosh, WI, and lived in the township of Vinland, located in the Winneconne school district, which I attended K-8. It was am excellent school system back then (I can’t speak for since), particularly in English, science, math, physical education, music & art.

By my senior year in high school at Lourdes Academy, I lived in Oshkosh and stayed there during the undergraduate summers & holidays I attended Marquette University. I learned a lot about life in Oshkosh, including this emotionally traumatic childhood event I will now relate.

I was 6 years old, and just finished kindergarten in Winneconne, so it was summer. My mom often took my brother David & I to go shopping in Oshkosh, because there isn’t much in small-town Winneconne. My mother was always proud to show off her children to everyone, especially other mothers.

One day, a “friend” who had two daughters, one my age & one my younger brother’s age, asked if “Eric could come over and play.” My younger brother wasn’t requested, it was specifically a request to have me come over & play for the day. My mom agreed, and dropped me off at their house one sunny summer morning.

It was the age-6 daughter that really wanted to play with me. The younger, 5-year old daughter quietly acquiesced & followed her older sister in everything we did– watch TV, coloring books, go outside & play, go back inside & see mom for lunch, etc. By the early afternoon I had grown tired of the older sister’s bossiness. When she declared what we were going to do next, and I didn’t feel like it, I instead went into the living room and starting coloring in the pile of coloring books.

A few seconds later, the younger sister came to me, quietly sat down and started coloring with me. [!!] What happened next I will NEVER forget, although the names & faces are long gone. The older sister starts screaming, “NO!! You can’t play with him. You have to do what I say!! That’s not right! No, no, no…!!”

Mom hears this and immediately rushes into the living room and takes the older daughter up the stairs, then right-to-left down the banister hall into her bedroom at the end and locks her in. I can hear her pounding on & screaming through the door, “No! No!! It’s not fair…” over & over as mom rushes down and whisks her younger daughter away.

Mom comes back into the living room where I’m standing stunned and says sternly to me, “Sit over there, I’m calling your mother to come get you now.” No apology or explanation as to what just happened. It was an interminable 30-minute wait for my mom, and a quiet ride home. Who was the victim in that incident? Answer: It was the 6-year old boy, and that’s when I learned how certain girls feel about me, and how crazy they can get when I don’t do what the want.

Bad girls exist, and have existed for a long time. It is inherently prejudicial to believe women are always right & to be believed. That just isn’t true and anyone with life experience knows this. I have experienced it many times since I was first introduced to a bad girl at age 6. Many motives exist for all of us to be deceptive, manipulative, or just evil. To cynically claim this can’t be true is to stand reality on its head.

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