My Life of Ten years

My beginning started in Huntington Beach, Ca. Though I was born in Garden Grove. I have four sisters all older than me and pretty much out of the home when I arrived. My parents bought a 2-story house in Norco, and I was about 3 or 4. I am told that I used to play chicken with cars and would consistently go down and watch people shooting at the range. I also remember Prince a Shetland Pony my dad bought for me. We had a barn and everything. Even a riding cart. We had another horse as well, but I do not remember the name.

From Norco my parents upgraded their flipped house for more property in Pedley, even though they went from a double story to a single story. By this time, I was 5 and was in private and public school. Though I do not remember why exactly. I do though remember school and having to constantly go home for new clothes because I had a pee my pants issue which cost me a lot of friends. I was also bullied a lot because of this issue.

I had a close friend that I was paying to be like my bodyguard, which lasted not long due to another issue I had. From what I remember I was coming back from paying my friend for the week when I was in a real nasty car accident. Stemming from my fearlessness of youth I remember going down this steep road heading to my house. There was a stop sign at the bottom, but I just wanted to go fast and hit a van at the intersection. Totally my fault, poor person in the van, I can only imagine what they felt.

I flew a long way and landed on my left side breaking everything and punctured my spleen. I was not far from home, and my dog at the time Sheba who was a German Shepard had jumped the fence and was standing over me when the paramedics came, not letting them get to me. Total guard mode. One of my sisters lived nearby and her husband at the time was a law enforcement officer. He had to come and get my dog away so I could be treated and took to the hospital.

I do not remember much during this period as I was in a coma for a bit. I have bit and pieces still in memory like moving from one hospital to another. I was told that my dog even followed the ambulance and was outside my window. Whether true or not I do not know, but it is nice to think I had a real friend at that time not willing to leave my side. My mother was huge on prayer, and she made sure to lay it all on me.

For several months I dealt with casts on both my arm and leg. But I did not let that stop me, because next door was a young Mexican girl I really liked, and I would crawl over to her house to play. I would literally crawl to her house. Maybe it was the pity factor or something else, but we were fairly close friends. Every day I was over there trying to hit on an older girl at the age of 6. What a player!

The bad impact of this all was my parents divorcing and separating. My mother sold the house, and we lived in rented apartment for some time then we moved because she bought a condo in Colton for us to live at. From this time, I attended private schools for several years. My mother was a night guard for a mental institution called Patton. She worked the graveyard shift and slept during the day. This meant I spent a lot of time outside adventuring.

I rode my bike, walked and explored the train yards, the river, and the playground. I was even into little league and BB gun fights with my friends. This was also the time I tried to go and create my own business. I tried to sell my dad's Stamp collection to those staying at the Howard Johnsons across the street. In the down time I would swim at our pool, goof around on the tennis court or basketball court. I could even be found walking in the streams, waterfalls, and ponds of the neighborhood.

I had even started dating. At this time roller rinks were the place to go, and I was always taking my girlfriend, because in those days you were just dropped off and picked up later, No need for sitters or parents. Roller rinks were the best times in the late 70's early 80's. This life lasted until I was about 9 or 10. So strange how I can still remember those times. Knott's Berry Farm, The Castle Miniature Golf, and water parks seemed to hold the vast amounts of memories for me, but also the company picnics of my grandma and the Elk lodge events seem to stay very vividly in my mind. I even remember the peacocks and how violent they were in the back of the Elks Lodge there in Buena Park.

Oh, and a very vivid memory of that time was Star Wars in theaters!!! Wow the thrill. Not as scary as Jaws which took a while to get over, and of course Earthquake which caused me to take a hammer to my dad's train set to replicate the destruction. Stories at that time resonated with me and perhaps formed my love of writing at an early stage. This was also the time my imagination was huge. being the only child at home left lots of lonely time and my story telling began to emerge.