Childhood babysitters: Matt's perspective

Unlike our previous posts, my recollection of our sordid babysitting history is surprisingly strong. Though I could not remember the names of all our babysitters, I remember thinking that most of them were very good looking, and I had crushes on all of them at one point or another.

Though I remembered the Maria versus Lisa battle that Kelli described quite well, I had never connected this incident with the reason why I began babysitting my siblings at such a young age. But I suspect that Kelli is right. In addition to babysitting during the summer, I also became the Friday and Saturday night babysitter for my brothers and sisters, staying up until 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning at the ripe old age of nine while my parents were out drinking at Box Seats, their favorite sports bar. I would watch The Twilight Zone from 11:00 until midnight, and once I was thoroughly terrified by Rod Serling, I would turn to channel 38, which ran M*A*S*H marathons all night long. I would sit beneath an afghan, watching Hawkeye and BJ and Radar yuck it up while saving lives until my parents finally returned home.

I eventually began to view Hawkeye as a sort of father figure. He was the man who got me through the darkest parts of those weekend nights.

When I was in an especially good mood or (more likely) feeling especially nervous about staying up alone, I would also allow my brothers and sisters to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live with me. None of us fully understood the humor of the sketches, but the show allowed us to huddle together on the couch for a while before I finally sent my siblings to bed.  

There is one part of my sister’s recollection that is surprisingly inaccurate (since she remembers almost everything). Kelli described Maria’s house as “huge with lots of windows.” The house was actually still under construction at the time, so the big windows she recalls were actually open walls and missing sections of the roof. We essentially spent the day at a construction site, and though the house was near completion, there was still much work to be done.

I can also confirm that Lisa’s boyfriend would take me down Federal Street on his motorcycle as long as I promised not to cry. At the age of eight, I was apparently better prepared for a road test than my younger brothers and sisters, so it’s understandable. 

Childhood babysitters: Kelli's perspective

When my brothers and I were young we had babysitters taking care of us during summer vacation. Our mother worked in the pharmacy at Woonsocket Hospital and our step father was a social worker at the same hospital, so we spent our summer days at home.

Our babysitters were teenage girls who my mother knew. They were daughters of friends who she had ridden horses with when our father was still in our lives. Lisa was our favorite. She was fun and had a really cool boyfriend who took us for rides on his motorcycle.

Only in the driveway, of course. Mom never knew.

One night Lisa babysat while our parents went out, and she let us stay up late to watch The Omen. Mom was not thrilled. She was also the prettiest of our babysitters. I wanted to be just like her.
Then there was Maria. She was fun but made us listen to REO Speedwagon on full blast all day long. She was really thin with a huge puffy perm. I always thought she had a big head.

Then there was Missy. She was eventually fired and prosecuted for stealing rare coins from our family.
All the babysitters knew one another and were friends. They would often visit each other while babysitting us. Until this one day...

Maria was babysitting on a rainy day, so we had to stay in the house. The phone had been ringing a lot. Maria would answer it, scream and hang up. Matt, being the oldest (about eight years old at the time), was able to figure out what was going on. Maria had been after Lisa's cool motorcycle boyfriend, and now she was scared because Lisa has been calling the house. She turned off the radio and made us all hide upstairs. Matt told us that Lisa was coming over to beat her up. She went to use the phone and came back upstairs with our shoes. She helped me with my shoes and made Matt help Jeremy with his. Then she grabbed our hands and we all ran out to the driveway, where we found Maria’s father waiting for us in his car. He took us to their house and then went back to work.

Maria's house was huge with lots of windows. We thought we were safe until Lisa appeared in Maria’s driveway with a bunch of girls screaming and threatening her life. Maria cried so I cried. Matt was the smart one and called Mom at work. After what felt like hours of waiting and hiding, Mom finally came to pick us up. 

It wasn't long after that when Matt, only eight or nine years old, became our fulltime babysitter.

I sometimes wonder where Lisa, Maria, and Missy are today. Did Lisa and Maria ever become friends again? Did Missy continue her life of crime? I’ll probably never know.