Meaner than a Snake!!

“He’s Meaner Than A Snake”
That’s what great aunt Alice used to say about him!
I’m going to call him Herman, not because I don’t like the name, but simply because I don’t feel free to use his real name, was the father of a good friend of mine and one of the nastiest neighbors I’ve ever known.
Herman was a very dark figure and had moved to our town from a nearby
larger town. Herman’s first wife had died under mysterious circumstances
as it was well known that he had beat her often.
His second wife was a lot younger than he was, only a few years older
than his son who had been born by his first wife. One day Herman found
out that his son was having an affair with his young wife and threw his wife
out even though she was pregnant, with her the young child they had had
while he was married to his first wife. Now here’s another mystery, I never
had any idea there was an older son than the friend I grew up with, for he
and his sister never mentioned an older brother; unless my friend was the
son? Herman then had a third wife, and it too became rather common
knowledge that he frequently would beat her; and was suspected in her
death but never formally accused. There were many who thought that
Herman’s wealth and vast property holdings were the result of his inheritance from his wives??. He was very frugal and ended up paying
The government for eleven years of shorting the government w/ a devise
he had rigged up in his garage that keep the voltage meter less than it
should have been. Herman was tight, he was cruel and he worked at the
factory where my uncle was a foreman and for a while my mother worked
at. My uncle said that Herman had no friends because he alientated himself
by his cruelty.
What initiated this discussion was that while visiting my grandma at the
nursing home, his daughter stopped by and said hi. It was good to see her
after so many years. Later my uncle told me that she was the only one he
knew that Herman was half-decent to – and now she would ultimately
make the decision where he would live …. Gram said most of the nurses
at the home hoped he’d go home or somewhere!
Here is another mystery; my uncle Sammy [bro. of earlier uncle, and a
fictious name] became a good friend to Herman. Uncle Sam lived in the
old house where I grown up most of school years [we had moved to the
other end of the street by then], across street from Herman.
So Herman now resides a couple doors down, on the same side of the hall
as gram …. She has already begun to accumulate some stories!