I guess I should describe my adoptive dad better, as several people have said he couldn't have had money if he was a super. he learned and was trained as a mechanical engineer although never officially when he was in merchant marines super of a building as in maintained the whole place what ever needed any type of repair such as: electrical mechanical remodeling plumbing you name it he did it also worked for anyone who needed anything he had a reputation as the man with the hat and he rode a bicycle all over. he never spent money on us or himself. he redid a house and it looked like a shack when he started and then a mansion when he was done. he took us to see the beautiful house while we live in a shack. he was a "jack of all trades" and did it all for cash nothing turned in to I.R.S. at one time he was worth 1/4 of a million he paid cash for our home in NY and the one we moved to in pa I mean cash as in bills not check i am not kidding i saw with my own aging eyes he was a miser though when it came to us he lent money out at 20% interest back then and sometimes he got paid back and other times he didn't and he couldn't sue as he had no legal proof that he had any money at all i suspect he was loan shark or illegally involved in a lot of things. he carried a gun and all his cash in his socks. he died broke as he had no legal records to claim just scraps of paper saying so and so owes me 100,000.00 due on such and such date but they were never notarized and the people were no where to be found. my story is a real soap opera the sad part is he made us live on goodwill and had to wear coats to bed we never hand a new thing in our life. we ate the food that the stores stick in the carts like the cans that are dented or have no labels and sometimes the cans were pet food (no my mom did not make us eat it) he would buy the whole cart for a few bucks and that was our groceries said it was a waste to buy real food. we slept in coats and sleeping bags cause he did not want to pay the gas bill as it was stupid. he rigged the meter for a while and then he got caught so instead of getting it turned on from con edison we got dressed in front of the stove. . my adop moms favorite song was second hand rose. and she was so mad at him cause he had the money. it would have been different if we knew he didn't have it but in his eyes we were not a good investment. In other words he would not make any money on us. He also was sexually abusive to me and my mom turned to drinking so she was mentally not there either. he never wanted any kids she did cause she was so lonely and he was in the service and gone a lot and then when he returned he was never home. gone from 7am til 7pm every dat 7 days a week. that is why i guess i ache so bad to find family. lol Joann