Bio
ME before MY daughters – Part 1, The Early Years
I grew up in a family of four boys, experiencing broken limbs, stitches, bloody noses, busted lips and broken teeth. I crashed my bicycle many times trying to reproduce the stunts of Evel Knievel. I can tell you from personal experience that it hurts deep inside when you fall off the roof of a house.
I had at least one fight with every kid in the neighborhood close to my age. I accidentally broke windows with baseballs, wiffle-balls and basketballs. I started a few fires that got out of control. I can count at least 4 times I escaped serious danger or death.
I was just a normal boy.
I also did other normal boy things.
I hit home-runs, made impossible hook shots in basketball, and executed perfect twisting flips from the high diving board. I was an all-star in everything.
I was a big fan of “GI-Joe,” so of course I loved waging war. Enemy number one was the glorious vocalist of west Texas, the cicada. I sniped those singing cicadas from the ground below with a BB Gun.
I am ashamed of the slaughter.
I routinely laid waste to red ant beds with smoke bombs, firecrackers, lighter fluid and matches.
Ditto on the shame.
I also was very good at capturing those head-poking ground squirrels in buckets, after flooding their subterranean homes with about 25 gallons of water. Sure, I pissed them off, but I did not take their life.
So, just a little shame.
I made high grades and was considered a model citizen by all teachers. I went to church most Sundays at St. John’s and was convinced that church was named after me. Also, I was obsessed with learning to play the piano at the age of ten, and I still play to this day.
My head was full of dreams during those years. I knew that I could do or be anything I wanted. I also knew that I was immortal.
If a prophet told me, “You will spend most of your life surrounded by girls!” I would have said, “Yuck. Girls are gross. Girls have girl germs.”
And that is what my life was like through the sixth grade.
I was just a normal boy.
Then came grades seven through twelve, and things got really weird.