My brother Mark was the best escape artist of us all.  How he did it, I still don't know, because we tried our best to keep a watch on him.   Mark took off a lot, often winding up around Skyline Blvd., the police finding him, and bringing him back home.  Mark is autistic, so he didn't realize that he might worry someone when he wandered off.  Mark also loved to turn off the power at the switch-boxes of people's homes, or turn on their water hoses, and spray those around.  Mark was a genius at figuring out how to get into those locked switch-boxes!  You can imagine that this didn't make us very popular with the neighbors.  The neighbors across the street, the Millers, were particularly critical that such a large family could even exist (I constantly heard the neighbors criticize my mom for having so many kids).  The Millers had a beautifully-kept home, so possibly they were worried that their own property values would go down, being situated so close to the Hagler "Animal House" across the street. 
On one momentous day, the Millers were having a party, all their guests dressed up.  We didn't know what the occassion was, but somehow Mark left the house without our realizing it.  The next thing I saw was my brother holding a hose, turned on full blast, right at the Miller's picture window.  The Millers and their guests looked out that picture window, seemingly horrified.  I think that was one of the occassions when Mrs. Miller would march over to our house and have a yelling match with my mom.   I don't know why Mrs. Miller would object to Mark's washing her windows, though.  Some people could be so uptight!
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Another thing about being in such a large family is that you are noticable when you are all together. You are part of your own army.  Every time we would go out, people would stare at us.  We became accustomed to being looked at, when we were out, though. The advantages were that we always had someone to play with.  Some disadvantages were that we had to share - food, space, talk-time.  There was never enough food; if one of us was unwise enough to leave their plate for a second, someone else would consume the rest of our meal!  We all learned to eat fast.  I also learned to talk fast, as well, because there was also competition for "talk-time".  We all wanted mom's attention, and had to grab for it, in bits and pieces. Arlo would really become frustrated, because his thoughts were so long, that when he paused in the middle of one of his monologues, another of us would jump in.  "