Mr. Jenner. Was your mother an extravagant person money-wise?
Mr. Pic. I don't know what she did with the money, sir. She bought very little as far as clothes and things. We didn't eat steak every day. We didn't eat that good. In fact, when I joined the service in 1950, I was 118 pounds, and my weight prior to that was usually about 130, 140. I think within a month or two after I joined the service I was up to 145 and none of my uniforms fit me. I was—there is a picture of me in the Pasqual High School thing, and I am very thin. People couldn't recognize me from that picture. I lost a lot of weight working, and not eating too good. I would come home and have to fix my own meals.
Mr. Jenner. Was your mother attentive in that respect? Did she go out of her way to have meals ready for you boys when you returned to home either after work or after school or otherwise?
Mr. Pic. If there was a majority eating there was usually something set aside for the lesser, which was kept warm in the oven.
Mr. Jenner. You mean the member of the family who was absent at mealtime she would save something for him?
Mr. Pic. Yes, sir.
Mr. Jenner. Did you get the feeling, you and your brother, in due course, that your mother's references to these financial needs at times, at least when, to use the vernacular, she was crying wolf?
Mr. Pic. Yes, sir.
Mr. Jenner. These continued references by her to her financial needs, did you think that had an effect on Lee as well as on yourself and your brother?
Mr. Pic. It didn't affect me that much. I ignored most of them. If I had money I sent it. If I didn't, that was it. Lee was brought up in this atmosphere of constant money problems, and I am sure it had quite an effect on him, and also Robert.