Getting Sober at 20: My Journey
By Savannah P. and Catherine Pirozzi
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Getting Sober at 20 - Savannah P.
road
Chapter One
I was born
It was the summer of 1990 in a park located in Los Angeles, California. I didn’t know what fate had in store for me. We were just two young people in love going to a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ concert, how could anything go wrong and right at the same time?
Life began in 1970 when my parents brought a beautiful baby girl into the world. I was named after my grandmother and Great Aunt Margaret on Dad’s side. I was born into a blended family. My dad and mom had both been married previously and had two boys each. So, I was the only child and the third child in some ways.
I was born at Desert Regional Hospital which was the old El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California. My dad was so happy to have a little girl; I am not sure how he would have felt if I had been a boy. My mother had a scheduled appointment on July 15 to be induced because the doctor wanted to go to a golf tournament. Back then they didn’t allow fathers in the room during the birth so my father and Todd and Derek, two of my brothers, went to Penny’s on a shopping spree for vacuums and other items. They ended up at a local Italian restaurant named Banducci’s. My oldest brother is named Derek after my father, while Bob is my father’s youngest son. Then there’s Jerry and Todd who are mother’s oldest and younger sons respectively.
My parents took me home to a mid century modern home where my dad had lived with his first wife, Sara - he got the house in the divorce. I know my father was a player and their divorce was a result of his way of life. At the time Todd and Derek were living with us. Jerry and Bob occasionally came to visit, but they weren’t the best of times. My father didn’t like my mother’s kids, and vice versa. I believe that put me in the middle of it all.
Chapter Two
The Family I Picked
When I was a one-year-old I was very curious about my reflection in the pool. One day my mother looked out the kitchen window and saw me fall in head first. She screamed at Todd, Savannah is in the pool.
Todd jumped in with his clothes on and saved me from drowning. They didn’t have pool fences or the baby proofing in those days they do now.
In my house in those days if someone didn’t fall in they were being pulled out of their bed and thrown in because my father didn’t like them. My earliest days were not easy ones as drinking and taking diet pills were the popular thing to do. My mother got tired of the abuse and left my dad when I was three-years-old. It happened one night after we came home from a restaurant. My mother put me into bed and then they started fighting. My parents would often fight at night during or after dinner and I would hear them say to each other, Your boys…
and complain about the other’s offspring. Later in my life I learned that I carried resentment toward my brothers because I always thought they caused the fights. I remember being so scared and I would cry and say, Please God, make it stop.
That particular night my mother had obviously had enough, so she packed me up and took me to a motel in the next city over.
Sometime later my mother packed up a U-Haul with all our things and we went to Canoga Park and rented a two bedroom apartment. I remember her being upset. One day I look my Barbie scissors and hid under a desk to cut the doll’s bangs. Then I ran downstairs saying look Mommy you don’t have to do my hair anymore. At the age of just three I already felt like a burden. I wanted to make things easier for her.
My dad would come up to see us on the weekends. One day my mom and dad took me to ride on a pony at a small stable. My mom would dress me up. My dad drove a Convertible Cadillac at the time. He also took pictures of me with his cars. My dad was a huge car guy. He enjoyed vintage racing, sprint car racing, hot rods and classic cars.
After a short stay at Canoga Park we moved back to the desert with my dad and into a new house in Rancho Mirage. My brother Derek also moved in at the time. But it wasn’t long before the fighting between my mom and dad started again. In the 1970s it was taboo to discuss anything going on at home.
My dad and my brother also had a very volatile relationship. They would get into fist fighting in the hallway, although one time Derek went out to the garage and beat up the washing machine. He was always asking for a dirt bike, then he would take it out in the desert and destroy it, then bring it back and say, This is a piece of shit.
My dad was always trying to make him happy, but it never worked. My dad felt guilty about the way they had grown up in a divorced home.
When the washing machine no longer worked, thanks to Derek beating it up, my mom took me to a little laundry mat instead to do the washing. While we waited for the clothes to dry, we would go to a donut shop a couple doors down. I would always get my favorite chocolate with white cake donut. I remember that being a special, happy time with my mother as a little girl. So something good actually came out of that bad situation.
When my mother and father got a few drinks in them stuff would start to fly and I do mean fly. One night we were out at a Chinese restaurant and Jerry said something to anger my father. In return my dad threw his plate of food at him. I remember my mother taking me into the bathroom to clean me off. A lot of times when the waiter would ask if we wanted a drinks order, I would chime in and say no,
but they always got what they wanted. To this day I get a scared feeling inside when I hear people ordering alcohol.
In the summertime, we would travel to Los Angeles to visit my grandmother. We called her Granny. She loved her grandchildren and we adored her. Her husband passed away a year after I was born. They had their own Real Estate business and helped people with their taxes, notary, and insurance needs. I have fond memories of sitting at an Oval wooden table playing go fish with Granny. Every time I won she’d give me a Penny or two. A few hours into the visit my dad and Granny would start arguing, usually about Granny pushing him to eat food, and we would leave abruptly. I loved that lady and was sad when she passed in 1982. That was the first time I ever saw my dad cry like a baby.
One summer my parents rented a house in Playa Del Ray on the beach. One day My mom went to the grocery store and left me with my dad and brothers. They took me to the beach and I got sand in my suit. My dad took it off and put me in a baby pool to play in there. My mom came home to find me and had a fit about me being naked in the pool.
My mom’s family moved a lot when she was little. My grandma was a realtor in The San Gabriel Valley, but her real talent was being a chocolate dipper at my Great Grandma Palmer’s and my Great Aunt Iva’s candy factory in the 1930s. The factory was called Ray Lanes Candy. They would deliver chocolates to people in the Los Angeles area. Great Grandma Palmer made the hard candy with a hook.
When I was growing up my mom’s family lived out in Las Vegas. Back in the 70s it was a lot smaller than we know it today. My favorite thing to do was to go to Circus, Circus and watch the dinner shows featuring Diane Warwick, Tony Orlando and Dawn to name a few. My Grandma Marshall saw Elvis twice but I missed that. Grandma Marshall lived with her mother Blanche and sister Jean. They smoked cigarettes and gambled. My grandma stopped smoking when she was about 64-years-old. My grandma made things like Afghans, Christmas ornaments, decorative Kleenex box holders, and other fun crafts. I made a Christmas ball one time. My Great Aunt Jean enjoyed bowling, so we would do that too. I would visit for two weeks in the summertime. One year I particularly loved was when my grandma and