BILL CADY Word Count: 149,227 - At My Friend's Place

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 71
I did get a chance to do some payback. I guess that‟s what you‟d call it. My
youngest child, a boy we named Tyler Langdon Cady, was the first baby to be born in
Lansing, Michigan on Christmas Day, 1977.
Every year, even after his mother and I divorced when he was three and a half, I
insisted on the same thing. Any birthday presents had to be wrapped in birthday paper,
not Christmas wrapping. Further, those gifts were to stay hidden until seven in the
evening, at which time it was no longer Christmas day. That‟s when it became “Happy
Tyler Day”. No way was I gonna let my boy suffer the way I did.
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When we talked about John Horaney, I mentioned I‟d learned a “new word”.
Actually, I learned it much earlier; when I was six.
My cousin, a few steps removed, lived two houses south of us, on the same side
of the street. His name was John Thurston. He died from cancer about a year or two
before I came to California. Remarkably, he took faith and counsel from me as far as
facing death, since I died in 1965 in an accident. By that time, being adults, all the old
business was behind us. When we were kids, however, things were rather tense for a few
years.
John was older, maybe five or six years. He was strong and burly, but not as tall
as most kids his age. He wasn‟t retarded, but he wasn‟t too far removed from being that
way. Because of some tumors no one could explain, John had a few big bumps on his
lips. Of course, all the kids made fun of him. Teased the poor bastard so much, it‟s no
wonder he grew so mean. He started taking it out on me when I was six, old enough to
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