THE GLASS CASATLE
A Memoir
By Jeannette Walls
One of Jeannette Wall’s first memories was her on fire at the age of three. Her parents brought her to the hospital and after six weeks in a cozy hospital Jeannette’s father, Rex Walls, ran her out without paying the bills. Although she had been almost killed by it, Jeannette still enjoyed fire and played with matches at times.
Then from that point all Jeannette remembers was moving from town to town, city to city constantly on the move. Her father explained why they were doing the “skedaddle” with exciting fantasy stories of being chased by the mobs or a secret government agency when in reality; they were poor and running from the bills.
“We were always doing the “skedaddle”, usually in the middle of the night.” Jeannette, her brother Brian, and her sister Lori were always in the car moving around with their parents. Sometimes they had a place to stay for a few weeks to a month, but then it would be the “skedaddle” again and they were on the road.
But Rex Walls wasn’t necessarily the worst father. He was always looking out for his kids. He’d help them stop being scared of monsters they’d see or dream of in their sleep by taking them demon hunting. “By now, Dad said, that old Demon had figured out that it had better not mess with Rex Walls. But if that sneaky son of a gun though t it was going to terrorize Rex Walls’s little girl, it had by God got another thing coming.” Rex always gave Jeannette courage.
While on the run, Jeannette’s younger sister, Maureen, was born. Her mother gave birth in the hospital and a few days after the birth, the father went in and did the “skedaddle” out of the hospital and continued on the road again.
The first place that Jeannette called home was a little town called Battle Mountain. She had time where her father got a job, they had money and she could get some friends. Life was poor for them, but they lived and enjoyed it compared to not having a place to call home other than an old car.
Her father decided to stay in that town for a while so he could hit it rich by creating a machine; called the Prospector, for mining so they could hit gold. Once they hit gold, Rex was going to make his family an extravagant house made completely out of glass. He made blueprints using his engineering skills and mathematical genius and was ready to build. “All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that. Once he finished the Prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our Glass Castle.”
Rex, though, would use the Glass Castle as an excuse. Like why he would quit his job or why he was out at night all the time when in reality, he probably got mad at work and went out drinking. But the children all liked living there even though for a while their parents were mad with each other. On Christmas Jeannette let everyone have one of the stars in the sky. Jeannette looked up and saw Venus. She wanted it and for Christmas, Rex gave Jeannette Venus.
Around the age of eight, a boy named Billy Deel had a crush on Jeannette. He would sometimes force himself on her and she decided to stop things. He got angry and came after with a BB gun and Jeannette used her father’s pistol. The cops found out and Rex decided to do the “skedaddle” again.
The next place they moved to was phoenix where Jeannette’s mom, Rose Marry, had inherited a house there from her mother. They didn’t even mention to the kids that their grandmother had died because they didn’t see it as important. Rose Marry was going to kick off her art career in Phoenix. She had a degree in teaching and had job at the school in Battle Mountain but she was too lazy to do it herself.
For a while they had good money with her father having a job and the mother doing artwork that probably just cost more money. The kids got new bikes and they loved life there. A few months later, the father quit and started to drink a lot. He was constantly drunk and ruined everything making the money come in less and the house became a mess and began to fall apart.
Jeannette asked for her 10th birthday for her father to stop drinking. After several long and hard days, he stopped for a while. He decided to get everyone in a car a stay at the Grand Canyon for a while as a vacation and when they were in the car he sped up past the speedometer and blew the engine. After that, they decided to move over to Virginia with Rex’s parents.
None of the kids like Rex’s mother when they moved in. She was always mean and yelling. None of the kids liked it and their uncle Stanley who was always hitting on Jeannette. After a while, they got kicked out of the house and had to get a very poor shack that was falling apart in the worst conditions.
Rex was constantly drinking and gained the title of the town drunk. For years everyone lived through Rose Marry working selfishly on art and freezing in the winter and their father’s drunkenness. Eventually Rose Marry worked at the school for money but became more selfish and wouldn’t work. Jeannette got a job as soon as she could and found herself trying to pay for the bills, which she just couldn’t cover.
Then one night after arguing and yelling at her mother, Rex whipped Jeannette. From there on she decided she’d try to get out. She agreed with her older sister Lori to move to New York after graduating high school. Once Lori got out, Jeannette decided to move over once she finished junior year. Eventually all the kids moved to the city and later the parents.
After that the parents went on being themselves but the kids had their own lives. Rex and Rose Marry got kicked out of their home and became homeless and refused shelter from their kids. They actually enjoyed the homeless. Jeannette got her college degree and had a successful life like Lori and Brian. Maureen did become addicted to drugs and went crazy for a bit and eventually moved out to California and kept in contact through letters.
Year’s later Rex Walls died and life became boring to some of them. That’s when they realized how even though Rex was an annoying problem in life, it kept it interesting. So many things in the books seemed so unreal that you would think it’s fiction, but in reality, it’s true.
