The Hedges from across the street

Harvey - The oldest, even older than my oldest sister. Enlisted in the army, spent most of his time in Washington DC. When he got out he married the daughter of a well to do local farmer, became a cop, and when things went bad he went out in a field and blew his brains out.
Shirley - Moved to the Upper Peninsula and had a shit load of kids, and whenever she came down to visit she tried to tell her mother how to raise her younger brothers and sisters.
JoAnne - A friend of my oldest sister. Dropped out of high school and married a perpetual teenager, a guy who never grew up. She had three kids and their first names all started with an R.
Gary - Was always trying to get my other sister to go out with him, and even she had sense enough not to. He was a real punk, and when he finally got hauled into court the judge gave him the option of spending some time in the county jail or enlisting in the army. He joined the army. He was an ever bigger punk when he got out. He was a drunk and a junkie and did his best to get his three younger brothers to follow in his footsteps.
Penny - Was a year older than I was. Probably the first girl I ever remember seeing naked, but she was like five and I was like four, and she wasn't naked enough for me to learn that girls had different equipment than boys. She turned me on to Betty Page and she worked in a bakery in high school and made enough money to buy a faux leopard skin coat and a 1964 Plymouth which she decorated with psychedelic flowers.
Wesley - A year younger than me. We were off and on best friends growing up. During the school year we never hung around but once vacation started we used to get in all kinds of summer trouble together. Enlisted in the navy for a six year term but only lasted about six months. Got out and fell under the influence of Gary.
Kathy - Born with Downs Syndrome. Never lived at home, always in an institution because that's the way they did things back then. Three or four times a year Mr and Mrs Hedges would load the kids who still lived at home into the car and they would go out and visit Kathy. She died when she was about ten.
Larry - Man, I know very little about him. Oh, he got a job with the city as a garbage man and had a fairly attractive girl friend who wore glasses and worked in an office.
Tom - The summer I got out of the air force him and Skipper from down the street kept trying to talk me into buying them wine. I always said no. Sometimes now I wish I would have said yes. A few years later he lost the tip of his index finger in an accident at the salvage yard he worked at. The owner, to avoid filing an insurance claim, gave him a car that ran most of the time.