The Scott family wild streak

As I learn more about my great-grandmother Leta and reflect on her in relation to her (and my) family—the Scott family—and their descendants, it seems to me that there is a kind of hereditary wild streak. While I don’t have information on every member of the Scott family, I do know about several in different generations upon which to investigate this theory.

There’s no question that Leta had a kind of wild streak in her. Her several marriages, being pregnant before her first marriage, and the stories from her niece June of her dating life in the 1930s are proof of that. According to June (daughter of Leta’s brother Aaron), she used to love to watch her Aunt Leta get all dolled up before going out. “She looked like she stepped right out of the band box,” June said. When she returned later (sometimes much later), she looked as though “she’d been dragged through the mud.”

Aaron also had a wild streak in him. He spent several years as an itinerant bar tender and learned how to deal poker in Reno, Nevada. Upon his return to Ohio (after prohibition) and marriage to Florence, he continued to deal cards in the back room of the Flat Iron Bar and another establishment.

Aaron’s daughter June, a great admirer of her Aunt Leta, had her own adventurous life with men. She dated her second husband Russell when she was 14, but married Edgar instead. After having one child, June divorced Edgar, married Russell and had three children with him. After he died and while she was living in Arizona during her later years, June became enamored of another fellow. He was separated from his wife and lived with June. According to her daughter Margery, he lived off her for several years, and with rather expensive tastes and extensive needs, he spent much of her money, leaving her nearly destitute at the time of her death. No amount of conversation, reasoning, threat or argument would convince her to throw him out.

Aaron’s older daughter Lucille became pregnant in 1934 and married the father afterward. Her father was so distressed that they had a fractured relationship until her little girl died. Incidentally, Lucille is still alive, but suffers from nearly complete dementia.

My father (married three times) and sister also expressed a wild streak from their teens into their thirties. They had some difficulty settling down with a chosen partner. One of my father’s cousins/Leta’s granddaughter has also been married three times. Although I have yet to speak with her for more detail, I strongly suspect her behavior falls within this wild streak.

And in spite of my rather proper—and some might say judgmental—demeanor, I also have a wild streak. I consider myself a bit of an adventurer—in several ways. As I learn more about Leta and the Scott family, I anticipate I will find similar stories.