Pretend You're Someone Else - 2. (Chapter Three)-Who Is This Cute Boy?

Before Dad opened his real estate company and became extremely wealthy, there were two types of people in Avoy: poor, and dirt poor. Erich Anderson and his parents (my grandparents) resided on the dirt-poor side.

Growing up during 'The Great Depression,' while living in a one-room shack, Dad knew at an early age that he wanted something more. His own father, Collin Anderson, came to this country from Ireland in the earliest part of the twentieth century. After his move to New Orleans he met his wife, Stella, who just happened to be an illegal German immigrant. Collin had traveled to this wonderful city to pursue a career as a fisherman. He failed miserably and ended up spending most of his time in the local bars. After several days, drinking, fighting, stealing and gambling became more important to my grandfather than his dream.

One night he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. While passing by a tavern around three in the morning, he was violently tackled to the ground by his former employer. The job only lasted long enough for Collin to steal five dollars from the man's pocket and run off. Once the man saw the thief stumbling drunk on the pier, he raced over, and taking a knife from his pocket, the old sea captain cut the side of his former employee's face while cussing, and constantly repeating, "Goddamn son-of-a-bitch stole my money!"

Left to die on the rat infested streets of New Orleans, he was miraculously taken to the local hospital by a passing prostitute who found him lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. My grandmother was no ordinary mistress; she was quite strong from her teenage years working the bars in her home country of Germany. Grandfather was quite impressed by her strength, as she managed to haul him off the street and half-drag him to the doctor. Feeling very delirious, he asked her name, to which she replied Sophie. Because of so much blood loss, he thought he heard the name, Stella. The name stuck.

While the doctor patched Collin up, with several crudely sewn stitches and a swig of brandy from Stella, they both came to the decision to leave New Orleans.

Leaving the doctor's office several hours later, they quickly stole the morning newspaper, and browsed the articles for a possible new town in which to live. Flipping through the pages they finally found, to their delight, a very appealing article. "Local Avoy, Georgia man is run over by train in freak accident," Collin read aloud, his voice giddy with excitement. Stella hoped he was delighted by the town and not the tragedy.

The next morning after spending the night sleeping under the docks, the two of them started their day by pick-pocketing five dollars, which they used to purchase train tickets to Atlanta. On New Years' Day, nineteen-thirty-five, they arrived in Georgia and immediately stole a trunk from the platform, and to their astonishment found fifty dollars hidden inside-just enough for a nice hotel room in the city and first class tickets to Avoy. To celebrate their "wealth," the couple decided to marry at a local Justice of the Peace. When they arrived at his home on Peach Street, the old man was so drunk from celebrating the New Year that he didn't even notice the newlyweds stealing twenty dollars from his drawer.

Feeling ecstatic, Collin and Stella returned to their hotel room and conceived their only child. At that moment, the two of them honestly believed that their lives would run smoothly forever. They were wrong.

Two days later, they finally made it to Avoy, expecting heaven on earth, with rich land as far as the eye could see. Dreams of becoming a successful farmer filled my grandfather's head; instead he was horrified to find dirt-poor farmers and not a single bit of green anywhere. Even the grass looked and felt like straw.

With nowhere else to turn, they used their remaining money to purchase a shack and a week's supply of food. The next day, after Stella used a rusty knife to cut away her husband's stitches, Collin went out, and found work as a logger. He was lucky because he happened to be replacing a man who recently died from a blow caused by a fallen tree. The pay consisted of seventy-five cents an hour, but he gladly took it. The Depression raged on, and Stella's morning sickness pointed that a baby might be on the way.

In winter of that year, their first and only child was born-a boy. According to my family, Grandfather always felt guilty for changing his wife's German name, so he decided to give his son the name Erich, spelling it in the original German style.

As the years rolled by, the world might have changed some, but Avoy stayed the same. It was frozen in the thirties. Growing up in this town, my dad knew that someday he wanted to be extremely wealthy. He demanded a change from the life he was living.

During his childhood, the days were spent up in the mountains. From the time he was ten years old, every day began with helping his father chop down trees and haul them off. By the time his fifteenth birthday rolled around, Dad decided to run off to college. He was the smartest student in school. He also knew that any college in the state would accept him because of his outstanding grades. There were two major universities nearby: Emory and The University of Georgia. Erich chose Emory because Athens happened to be a country town.

Dad left Avoy in fifty-three, with enough scholarships, loans and grants to move into the men's dorm. Big plans of returning home a successful businessman filled his head, so he took classes in finance and real estate. Memories of his childhood days spent with my grandfather in the logging industry were always on his mind. It angered him that his dad's boss worked the employees to death and paid them nothing. Erich wanted to change all that.

Two years quickly passed, and eventually the woman that he would end up marrying came into his life. Her name was Lilly and she was from a local Cherokee Indian tribe. Dad and mom first laid eyes on each other during a sorority party, after Erich had been abandoned by his friends. As the hours came and went, he began feeling miserable. After knocking back several drinks, it finally dawned on him that he was not wanted; his clothes and posture spelled out, 'poor hillbilly.' He couldn't wait until the day when he would make his fortune in real estate. After finishing his last glass of brandy, Erich grabbed his jacket from the hall closet, and proceeded to head out the front door. That's when he saw her in the driveway-a beautiful raven-haired angel in pink taffeta.

A burning desire to be with her filled his brain and body. Without thinking about his appearance, Dad ran full speed across the lawn to her car. He could see by the startled fawn look in her eyes that she was surprised. After bumbling his words (he was quite drunk after all), Erich somehow talked the young woman into leaving the party with him. Turns out she was arriving solo; her blind date had stood her up.

Apologizing for this unknown boy's rude behavior, Erich took Lilly to a local Malt Shop; fifteen-cent hamburger, and ten-cent drinks were the only thing he could afford. Several hours later, they were dating. As the weeks went by, their routine consisted of new releases at the Atlanta Theater and Friday nights spent roller-skating. A year later my parents married.

After graduating in the spring of fifty-six, they returned to Avoy. Like most naive college graduates Dad believed he would immediately change the world. Once they made it back to town, the two of them purchased a small house on a loan from Lilly's father. Avoy did have a few homes on the west side of town-small Victorians, and bungalows that were built for the shop-owners during the twenties. The east side of Avoy held nothing but tin-shacks and mountain cabins. Dad would shudder when he talked about the dirt floor home that he once lived in. His mother now took up board in one of the Victorians, living off welfare. Grandfather had passed away the following year the same way many loggers did, a quick and sudden blow to the head.

Unlike his father, Dad wanted to become a successful businessman. A burning desire filled him; he needed to own this town, as revenge for the horrible way it treated his parents. Hatred and rage filled his body as flashbacks of working beside his father returned to him. To work almost twelve hours a day for thirty years, and what was there to show for it? A dirt floor shack, and nothing to eat for days. Dad made a vow that he was going to climb out of poverty. Never again would he or his family be poor.

The first step in the plan was to take out a loan of one-thousand dollars to purchase a rundown home. Dressing in an old business suit that belonged to his father-in-law, Erich made his way over to the nearest bank. He knew that no loan officer had ever approved anything for his family, but seeing how he now possessed a Bachelor's Degree in business, he was willing to give it a try.

An hour later he walked out of the First Bank of Avoy a thousand dollars richer. He didn't know if it was fate or divine being but he had been approved. To celebrate, Dad stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk, threw his hands in the air, and twirled around in circles.

A week later he bought his first house, and a plot of land. By the time a worker-crew transported the old, two-bedroom cabin from the outskirts of town, and deposited it on a tiny, one-acre bit of land, Erich was down to his last two hundred dollars. He used half of the money to remodel, re-plaster, and re-carpet the cabin. With only two weeks before his first payment was due at the bank, Dad had his first rental home. A sign was placed on the lawn with a price tag that the residents could afford. Standing on the sidewalk, he felt like James Stewart in the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life."

Within forty-eight hours dad had his first tenant. Overjoyed that the bills were going to be paid, he used the money to buy a new house. A year later he bought one of the offices down on the town square. Life was finally looking up for a man who once walked to school barefoot.

As the months swiftly passed, Erich bought more and more of Avoy. People were looking at him and treating him with respect. Towards the end of fifty-seven Mom became pregnant and nine months later gave birth to me. Continuing with the German-Irish tradition, I was named Peter.

Now that I had been born, Dad decided it was time to change. Slowly, overnight, the prices on his houses went up. Tenants weren't given as much time as they previously had to pay their rent. His attitude changed. By the time I celebrated my fifth birthday, Dad had finally made it. He was the richest man in Avoy. To show the whole town that he was in charge, a big decision was made; he bought one of the two identical Swanson Mansions.

Sometime before the Civil War, Frederick Swanson and his brother, Andrew settled in Avoy. Both of them purchased twenty acres and built a mansion for each family on it. Deciding a long time ago that slavery was wrong, the two brothers hired farmers to work the land. When the war broke out, the brothers fled their homes after Atlanta burned. Years passed, and the families never returned, leaving the houses abandoned with the occasional drifter or homeless person moving in. Finally, around eighteen-sixty-five, to the disgust of the town, a carpetbagger bought the house for his family. They didn't stay long and ended up leaving a few short years later.