There was precious little contact with Bruce Sr's family but the children were given a frequent and liberal dose of closeness to Peggy's side of the clan.
The boys were close in age (less than two years apart) and grew up (at least to the ages of 14 and 16) living in financial security and modest privilege. They were not WEALTHY but they did not lack for anything either.
Jim, the eldest, stated that he could remember relatively little about his life prior to the age of 14. This always struck me as odd. The things that he did recount over the years smacked of the gas-lighting and emotional abuse to which we are all accustomed. These are the isolated incidents that he was able to "remember" and the family stories that were often told regarding his childhood....
- As a young child (INFANT really- less than one year of age), Jim had an extreme distaste for being dirty or soiled in any way. He would panic if his clothing became dirty or soiled and refused to feed himself because he could not stand having food on his face and hands. Peggy thought this was very "cute" and that it showed some special "trait" in him that he felt such horror at being "dirty".
- Every day, for years, prior to elementary school each morning, Peggy would play a board game with Jim...and each day she would beat him soundly and tell him that he would "NEVER win against her and that she would ALWAYS be superior to him". She proved this to him on a daily basis cementing this in his young mind. Bruce Jr. was not invited to play these games and was curiously not mentioned in most of the family stories recounted around time spent with Peggy.
- Bruce Sr. was an absentee Father who was a "workaholic", a "cheater" and a "lazy man who utilized his children as manual labor". All stories around him were uncomplimentary and unflattering. It seems he was mostly just "absent".
- Peggy did not allow her children to behave like children, but they had to follow many rules designed to keep stress at a minimum for her. When she napped during the day she demanded ABSOLUTE QUIET...to the point that the boys developed silent games in order to stay out of trouble...not daring to make any noise and incur her wrath.
- She absolutely FORBADE them playing in the house and would set "traps" to catch them doing so when they were alone so that she could prove that she ALWAYS knew what they were doing. One example of this was shag carpeting which she raked into patterns and would check for depressed areas when she returned as this would prove that the boys had been playing on it and mean a good reason for punishment.
- She did not like having to clean the bathroom so her sons were forced to sit down to urinate to avoid any accidents. This was a lifelong pattern, at least for Jim.
- It was ABSOLUTELY forbidden to ask questions about, or discuss sex with Peggy. She felt that this was totally inappropriate and was a Prude of a woman who conveyed feelings of sex being a dirty secret that could never be discussed openly.
- The boys were NEVER allowed to have any privacy and their rooms were "bugged" so that Peggy could listen in and hear every thing that they said at any time. They began to believe that she truly could read their minds because she always knew whatever they had talked about...so they simply stopped talking and became more and more isolated. Peggy found this a very enjoyable illusion which she perpetuated at each opportunity.
These incidents and others lead you to believe that Peggy made life a living hell for her children...but in her opinion she was a fantastic mother...above reproach. Her children never dared to have opinions that differed from hers and she held them in the grip of an iron fist. She was God.
She taught them to be completely negative and to deride all others as being below them. She taught them bigotry and intolerance. They both learned these lessons very well.
When Bruce Sr was arrested and jailed, Peggy took this opportunity to exact her revenge by teaching her sons what a useless piece of trash he was and making every attempt to turn them against him. She was quite successful in the case of Bruce Jr...who never again spoke to his Father. From the age of 14 until he died when Bruce Jr was about 30 years old, he never spoke to him or had any contact with him again. She did a great job.
This arrest placed Peggy and her sons in a place of financial dire straights and they all hated Bruce for that. How dare he do something so stupid and ruin their lives?! None of them ever showed any understanding for his reasons, forgiveness of his humanity or any other allowance for his mistake. He was "discarded".
The problem was...she told Bruce Jr...on a daily basis ...that he was EXACTLY like his Father and how much she HATED his Father. A steady diet of this began to work on Bruce Jr who began to "mildly" rebel. This rebellion, however MILD was completely UNACCEPTABLE to Peggy who stepped up her efforts to force him to submit to her will and remain under her control.
According to Bruce Jr...he was always treated as substandard and Jim was always seen as perfect...."Golden" you might say. This began to destroy the relationship of the boys. Jim, on the other hand, did not see this at all. He felt that any preference he was given was logical and earned and that Bruce Jr was simply "over-sensitive" and "jealous".
And so, when Bruce Jr was about 30, he cut off all communication with his Mother and, as of today, nearly 20 years later...he has never spoken to her and has no intention of ever reestablishing any contact with her. Bruce Sr died without ever speaking to his son again (although Jim did have some contact with him occasionally)...and the relationship between Jim and Bruce Jr was, and is, long distance, cordial, measured, infrequent, cool and distrustful.
Bruce Jr. keeps Jim at a distance because he recognizes that Jim is EXACTLY like Peggy and that he will never be anything else. He is very correct about that.
Bruce Jr. recognizes the fact that his childhood and treatment were abnormal and wrong. Jim believes that they were raised is a PERFECT way by a PERFECT Mother and that this is evident because he has turned out so well.
In his estimation, Bruce Jr is "damaged" but not as a result of anything done to him by PEGGY...only by virtue of the fact that he was screwed up by his Fathers arrest. In his eyes, Bruce Jr. was simply too weak to deal with the upheaval and was mentally damaged as a result of this. Peggy and Jim both regard him as "unstable" and "delusional". Jim pities Bruce Jr.
A clone and another narcissist...were created.
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