~hippie3

What were your childhood and teen years like?

pretty rough.
my dad was in prison when i was born.
i never saw much of him,
he was a bum, too.
rode the freight trains around the country,
moving from one job to another,
just barely getting by.
he drank too much and my mom divorced him
when i was still very young,
i have few happy memories of him as a child,
really only one-
the time he came and we made kites to fly
out of newspapers and use flour/water glue.
very primitive
but i was a kid and i was thrilled
to have a kite at all.

it was the 60's and welfare hadn't really been invented yet,
my mom had to work all the time to raise us boys

i spent a lot of time at baby-sitters.
we were dirt poor.
i remember one xmas where mom just bought us about $5 worth of cheap
plastic cowboys & indians, toy soldiers, etc.

she sent us to catholic school
but it was hard there as most kids were from wealthy families,
paying high tuition
but i got to go free as long
as mom took us to mass every sunday morning
and put a little something
in the collection plate.

i guess that's where i first learned to fight back for myself,
i can remember the kids getting in a circle around me to taunt me
over my school uniform which was 2nd hand, worn-out.
i got in a lot of fights.
but i was a small child,
my thyroid gland wasn't working right
but no one knew that.
so i had to learn how to use
my feet and my wits to get around
larger, stronger opponents.
i grew up in an rough italian-irish neighborhood
and got jumped just about every day
as i walked to/from school.

i got beat alot at home too,
those were the 60's and everyone spanked their kids.
mom was no exception,
and raising boys all by herself
i guess she figured she needed to do it
a little more to keep us in line.
this 'life story' thing is a huge topic
so i'll leave more for later.
this covers me up till about the age of 8-9




(Message edited by admin on December 08, 2004)