So off we went to move to Trabuco Canyon. I was the new kid and starting first grade. First kids I met were Chris Bates, and John Day. Chris Bates was always a big braggart. He was so competitive that it was really hard to like him. He always had to use big words, brag about how many stars he had in class than you. And he was there longer so yeah he should have more stars. He always thought it made him so much cooler to make fun of others using words he thought were the most appropriate. Like buffoon! I think Chris was either in the next grade up or he skipped a grade. Sure he was smart, but he was a smart ass and could never keep his mouth shut. I never tried to compete with anyone. But I was jealous of John Day. Good looking kid and popular. Everyone like him, and occasionaly he'd get full of himself. But he was a good kid. John and I ended up getting into a fight, I don't remember why. I just wanted to be top dog a little bit. I got exausted during the fight and couldn't continue. So I was humiliated. Everyone thought it was a good fight, and I realized there was no real animosity in it. We were just fighting and John and I became friends. John lived just up the hill from me and right next to Chris Bates. It seemed like everyone competed to hang out with John. Chris always trying to convince John he was cooler and more fun to hang out with. John excepted me for who I was but wasn't always immune to Chris's influence. John had learning issues like me, and his self esteem seemed always in a deficit. I think he competed to be his big brother far too much. And his brother Brian was so involved in his own life that he didn't care that John in a discreet way envied his brother a lot and wanted to win his brothers respect, and his fathers. John went to a different school halfway to 6th grade, probably in 3rd or 4th grade. We enjoyed hanging out with John after school.
I had a crush on Chris's sister Lisa. I had crushes on other girls too, but Lisa was the only girl that gave me a chance. It got weird of course. She was the girl up the street and her parents and my parents did not get along. Her mom Thelma, who went by Ziggy, seemed out of her mind to me. This fued with her parents and mine started cause they had this rotweiler named Duke. He would run around wild with his canine friend Cozmo. They went around killing cats, and getting in fights with other dogs. Our dog pal wouldn't hurt a soul. But Duke came on him and dragged him into the bushes. It scared us to death, and my parents dragged us away before we could see what happened. We put up a chain link fence around the entire yard right away after that. And they kept letting their dog run around loose. The Bates insisted their dog was wonderful and not a mean or dangerous dog. However one day John and I were playing cars and we turned around to see Duke, walking away from Kip's dead kitten he just laid behind us. There were no other dogs that did this. Yes we didn't see the kitten drop from his mouth or him kill the kitten. John and I knew though. And Ziggy snapped at us when we told her. She looked hysterical and like she was keeping tears at bay and hating us for dropping this bomb on her. All we thought about was "poor kip" he loved that kitten.
Kip took it really hard when his dog was put to sleep. One day my sister Becky and I were climbing up the hill infront of our house to walk around. Becky got pooped less than half way up. I went ahead to motivate her, only to turn around to see Cozmo chewing on my sisters face. My sister was crying "Cozmo no" and my sister face was just covered with blood. I felt guilty about what happened and secretely took the blame. However as scared as I was that the dog may attack me too after what looked like him ripping my sisters face off. I chase him away and carried my sister to the house so my dad could rush her to the hospital. Becky was fine but had to have like 25 stiches on her face. To an extent I was a hero chasing the dog away and carrying her to the house so she would be ok. But I always took the blame, even though I had no idea Cozmo was going to start eating my sisters face. I had always wanted to protect my sister just like any big brother. Anyways Cozmo had to be put to sleep and Kip didn't handle that well at all. I was told that he wrote stories demonizing my sister. That they went something like her teasing or hitting Cozmo causing him to attack her. It was silly, but it scared me. Kip was a nice kid, but he carried a grudge, for us being the cause of his dog being put to sleep.
Trabuco elementary wasn't a very good school in my opinion. The 5th and 6th grade teachers in my opinion sucked, even though I didn't have either of them for teachers. The new teacher/principal was cool though. But my grades suffered because the teachers really didn't give a damn. And I was a slacker too. I read comics within my math book, I'd stare at the book not doing a damn thing. They didn't collect home work, or anything. I just sat there.
One day I got bored and thought maybe doing the math would be fun. I wanted to learn, and by then I was really far behind. The kids were learning division and I didn't even know my multiplication for beans. I ended up struggling through 5th grade and started being tutored by David Kroopniks mom. I'm not sure that's how you spell their last name. But David was a big blonde guy who rode and jumped horses. He was really good at it. He took lots of lessons with my sister and mom back in the day. And he rode our horses often. So, during 6th grade I ended up going to another school or risk flunking. I was really glad for this because I didn't like the 6th grade teacher at Trabuco at all. I had trouble with that teacher one day, when Jerid Thompson who we called Jerid Jar head, kicked a rock at me. I kicked a rock back at him cause I was mad, that sucker hit me in the ankle. Well my rock hit another rock on the pavement and went airborn and smacked into the 6th grade teachers back of their classroom wall. And not listening to a work I said. That fucker made me spend my lunch and recesses in the library.
I was the bottom of the food chain at school cause I was hyper and I didn't care what anyone thought. My dad was a drunk whom everyone thought was the coolest dad. And he always had his foot up my ass when no one was looking. He was mean and he would scare the shit out of us.
So during school when he wasn't around. I was off the hook acting like an idiot. When Joey started at our school he was the biggest idiot around. Everyone hated his stupid mouth. And I was relieved that I wasn't the bottom of the food chain anymore. Heck Micheal Supino was the bottom of the food chain too. He did some crazy shit. Like hitting Terri in the mouth because she cried when the softball hit her head. He walked right up and punched her in the face like it was cool. We were looking at him like he was out of his mind. Then one day he challenged me to a fight, and I had no idea why. I think it was because I was given money on the day we were going as a class to knott's berry farm. To learn about the old west and stuff. Well I thought we were going to go on rides and stuff. I didn't have a chance to spend the 5 bucks that was burning a hole through my pocket. So stupid me figured I'd buy Mikes hotwheel cars or risk having to give the 5 bucks back. I should of bought candy at the general store instead. Then I was asked later and I spilled my beans. I spent the 5 bucks on those stupid used hot wheels cars. Mom told me she'd get the 5 bucks back. Well she did, but I never saw it. And Mike apparently was mad and I had to fight him. So after school the big kids escorted us to the parking lot of the Trabuco Oaks Steak House so we could fight. They wanted to make sure no one chickened out. I felt like I didn't have a choice in the matter. And I didn't know why Mike wanted to fight me. We used to be friends now he hated my guts. And there he was moving his hands round and round like he thought he was the pistons of a car engine. Moving them round and round like some hyper active retard. I swung out and nailed him right in the nose blooding it. Fight over! I felt robbed!
There he was being escorted home like I was som bully that punched him for nothing. My parents heard about it and they chastised me a little and asked me why I hit poor Michael Supino. They didn't listen to me of course, they really didn't care. They were just going through the motions. Or since I didn't know why he wanted to fight me, they seemed to only hear. I didn't know why.
When I went to the new school I was still having trouble. Learning, and with kids, it just sucked. These were city kids to me and they were a lot meaner. You had to like the right music, say the right things. It was so important to be cool. And if you weren't cool, you had to find someone to kiss ass with so they'd take you under their wing. Every year got worse till I became a freshman in highschool And worst thing about Jr. High is all your old friends got into cliches and they didn't know you anymore. It hurt bad that John Day didn't want to be my friend at the time. It wasn't cool to be friends with me or anyone outside your cliche.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Forgot to add
My parents had horses they had stabled in Santa Ana. This was during the time we lived in Westminster, and I think when we moved to Huntington beach, they sold their horses. I remember they always spoke of one of their horses as "old blue". They loved that horse. And when they'd take me, I somehow always ended up in the ditch to play with the frogs, or tadpoles. And they would have to use a rope to get down there and get me back up. This frustrated them so much. That they started leaving me in the hot car. Once I ran as quick as I could because nothing could stop me from going down there again. My mom cracked a whip, and that sucker went wrapped around my neck. Dad said he could of killed her for being so stupid. However he really wasn't any better for his common sense either. One time while taking care of us and mom was out. My sister Becky decided she was going to walk to her preschool because she missed it. So there she was walking down Brookhurst Street, which was a busy busy road. And my sister was sooo little too! Another funny thing happened, late at night. My sister woke up and decided she was really hungry. She went into the kitchen and spread the fridgerator contents on the floor and started feasting. My dad heard something and down the stairs he went with his shotgun. And of course arriving in the kitchen to discover that pointing a shot gun at his daughter having a midnight snack on the kitchen floor probably wasn't a very good idea.
Mr Grandparents
My grandmother was partially Cherokee. She wasn't a very bright woman, but she was kind of the person holding all the Warne's together. Because of her we call went to Uncle Henry's motor home park club house. I always wondered why we didn't go to my grandfathers motor home park club house. I think everyone felt that the people who'm lived at my grandfathers motor home park were just crankier. It may of been that our park had about 280 coaches. Or that Uncle Henry's motor home park club house was bigger. But it was always at the same place. And it was always such a fun time, cause everyone was there. I thought seeing my cousins was really cool. However I always had wanted to see my cousin Teddy more often. And I had this wierd desire to show just how cool I was, because having a male cousin to play with should be much more fun than just playing with my cousin Vicky. I adored Vicky but her mom was a bit of a pain in the but, because she was so darned strict and unpredictable. I didn't dislike her though. My sister however really disliked being over at their place when I was no longer around but that's another story. Teddy's mom was very pretty, and they had owned a country market type of store off El Toro rd in Lake Forest. Or his mom worked there, I was never sure which. But I think they owned it. I don't remember Teddy's dad, for all I know his mom was widowed. Or maybe she was married to my deceased Uncle Dick. I was never around them enough to know, or remember anything. One thing that sucked about the mobile home park was when you made good friends there who were really good people. They'd up and die on you. And you are left with the sour people who just go on living forever. It was something that just seemed to keep on happening and my parents kind of made a point to stop acquiring friends from there, or being too friendly. There was one old couple that would break the rules with us and allow me to play pool. They were just the coolest couple ever. But I guess one of them died and the other died almost right away.
My memories of playing on my grandfathers farm was just the best. But I got spanked by my grandma once and she had an arm like a horses leg. You could get spanked by her once and remember it the rest of your life. She wasn't a very healthy woman, but she was strong! She used to throw hay bales once. It's the only job I ever heard her having besides babysitting. She never was particulary pretty ever, but may of passed for cute. My dad said my grandpa married her because he knew she wasn't a slut. My grandpa knew what he was looking for, and he was scared to find a woman like his mom. My great grandmother was a beautiful and very intelligent woman. Like my mom mind you. Now my mom may qualify for the following statement too. My great grandfather was a John L. Warne, and my grandfather may of been a Jr. or and L. of a different kind. I don't know! But my great grandmother was Elizabeth. And I was told she was a very mean woman. She'd spy on the mexicans working in the fields and she would use a spyglass. If she caught them eating a cherry tomato she'd dock it from their pay. And she'd walk around the block picking up pieces of glass and acquired a rather large pile of glass from doing this. She once made my grandfather beat my grandmother with a switch for reasons unknown to us. As she had three boys, she apparently had always wanted a girl. And my grandfather who was the older, for some reason. Was picked to be dressed up like a girl for her. And he had grown long blonde ringlets. I saw this picture and wondered how we were allowed to ever see it. I think it was my dad who bequethed these things for me to see. He had always thought my grandfather a nice and great guy, but a little weird. He had a notion that my grandfather was some kind of nudist and would walk around the house naked. And here is something I'll never understand. I never saw my grandma naked and I thank god for that. It probably would of scared me for life. My grandma on my dad's side however I saw dressing infront of my little brother when they visisted us when we lived in Coto De Caza. Or undressing to redress I don't know. I'll never understand that, nor will I understand why my grandfather wanted to talk to me when he was on the toilet. Is there some written rule somewhere that people used to show what their old parts looked like so you knew what to expect when you get old?
Anyways, my Great Grandfather moved to San Francisco from England and bought a island in the San Francisco Bay. He didn't own it for long because it was just too expensive. He met my Great Grandmother and moved to Westminster where they became pioneers and endeavored to grow sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes would not grow well in the soil and I think I understand that they were diseased. So instead they grew lima beans that grew rather well there instead. They had a large amount of land. And had acquired about 700 acres in Imperial valley. How this came to be I'd like to know cause Imperial valley is along way from Westminster. My Great Grandfather would travel by wagon drawn by I think six norweigen horses. Or I heard the word mules but these were normal beasts of burden. They were big! I often heard a lot of conflicting tales. So he would drive his wagon all the way from Westminster to Trabuco Canyon and trade goods with the miners there who would mine in Holy Jim, which was the creek and national forest area that went up the side of Saddleback Mountain. (Not brokeback mountain you f*ckers!) He would also bring materials for some place near there which was a tin mine. As I heard it wasn't really a tin mine but perhaps some kind of shady business going on there. Could of been just speculation.
So anyways, at the farm I would often pretend to drive all the tractors, or the antique cars. And some of those cars all big, black, and monstrous looking would scare me. I wasn't used to seing anything like them. As a kid you kind of get the notion that everything back them was the same as it is now. And anything else was just monstrous or scary. Those cars from the 30-50's were just so different looking. When grandpa passed away there were like 30 cars or so that my mother had to take the registration slips to the DMV. My grandpa collected antiques like his life depended on it. He had 50 of those lil steam engines, and 2 of the original steam engines that powered las vegas before it became a casino empire. He had a bunch of these catipillar tractors that were just enormous to me. And during the bean threshing festivals that came to our farm once a year. six of those suckers would be running and sounding like they were going to blow the roof off the tin building. And these six enormous tractors would pull the worlds largest plow owned by my uncle henry and make a trench about 5 feet deep in the field. Me and the other kids would want to go in that trench because bam! You could pretend you were in WWII and hop into that trench and hunker down shooting at imaginary natzi's!
The farm had a large rat problem and the carts loaded with the water pipes being untouched for so long underneath the fig trees didn't help none. But boy where they sure fun to shoot at like my own personal shooting gallery tween the pipes with a beebee gun! The tin building had lots of cool machines that had all kinds of metal machine shop stuff, fan blades, and just about anything you could imagine. It was like a willy wonka factory but with tools and machines instead. One of my favorite past times were riding in my grandpas white van and heading out to Joshua Tree. The tools would be swinging and clanging, and we were going to the desert with him and my dad to shoot off bee bee guns and have our male bonding. Grandpa would humor me by buying me cactus cooler pop, and playing songs he figured i'd enjoy. I can't remember the artist but the songs were ," sneaky snake likes soda pop", and "I care, I do, there's no one like you. I wanto you to know I care."
When I was that young I had copper colored hair. As a older kid it got really dark, and it's been dark black for so long. You might have always assumed it was so, being that I was part italian, greek, and cherokee and Souix Indian. My brother and sister always had dark hair.
Anyways more about the farm. There was also a old dump truck, and a old semi truck with a flat bed. These were really old ones. There was also a behive on the farm which was in some metal contraption that looked like someone started to build the tin man from The Wizard of Oz before it became infest with bee's. As for pets on the ranch, there was a big yellow tom cat. His name was yellow and he was the first thing I would look for when I was there. Eventually we acquired Teddy's dog Jeff, and he was a really nice dog. Grandma would go through pugs or pikinese dogs quickly. They never survived long there because their house was always very dusty. I figured alot of it traveled in with my grandfather working the fields all his life. But you can't have a dirty dusty house with those kinds of dogs. Dust in their nose is like feeding them radiator fluid. So my grandmother was lonely and my mom gave her, her silky terrier Tasha. Grandma probably fed that dog table scraps because she became so diabetic after Grandma passed away. Grandpa went into the hospital for the cancer and when he got back. Grandma saw him coming up the stairs and maybe seeing him so frail being helped up the stairs sent Grandma's lungs into chaos because she couldn't breath. Grandpa came in, and Grandma was on her way out to the hospital where she suffered a stroke and died. At the time I wondered if Grandma was afraid of him, but I would never know. I often did get the impression that my grandfather wasn't the nicest guy to her. When grandma lossed her ring down the sink, she didn't get a new one. She had a fake one from that point on. She didn't have alot of clothing and none of them very nice either. Her clothes often had a hole or two. She never drove a car. Mom would have to drive her in the thunderbird. Grandma would never be able to fit into my mom's cougar. What I loved most about grandma is sitting on her lap. She always sat in her chair which was behind grandpas desk chair. Or we'd watch tv together. Soap opera's were't my favorite but it was still time spent with grandma. Grandma used to sing padicake to me and all kinds of silly stuff like that. She'd watch me just play with my toys on the floor. And these toys were soo old. There was a top that was an antique. It was made out of metal and could probably hurt someone real good if you hit em with it. I always thought it was weird, we always went int the house through the back. The front of the house we never went into pretty much. It was where all the nick nacks were. China, pretty stuff to look at. It was like a antique store, cramped and pretty. Kind of like a doll house where everything was crambed into one room. Interesting enough the whole place was fenced off except for the field. And we had asian banana tree's lining the side of the drive way up to the chain fence gate. This became a problem later on when up and down Bolsa Ave became Vietnamese town. A large Vietnamese grocerty store arose across the street with large white marble cats placed at the sides. It was like a korean metropolis all of a sudden. It was like a veitnamese monument arose right there. And the koreans had their eyes on the banana tree's because they were their favorite to cook with. And the tree's were going to suffer from them coming over and stealing the leaves. They were sometimes offering to buy them but they refused to understand. The tree's were going to die! And these were my grandfather's pride as he was in the newspaper because of these tree's growing and thriving. These banana's tasted a bit thick and chalky compared to other banana's. They took a bit to get used to. But they were probably as organic as you could get, and probably great for diets and smoothies I suppose. They had a rather buttery taste to them.
Oh and I remember biting into a percimon. Don't do that! Woah! You cook them otherwise they taste like shit! Well some people enjoy eating a ripe one, but I never could tell the difference and biting into a bad one could send you off them for life.
Wierd things that happened to me there though. I once fell backwards while walking across one of the disc plow things that get dragged behind a tractor to till the field. I somehow managed a backflip to avoid falling backwards onto those disc's. I could of been really hurt. I never told anyone about that because I probably would not be believed, or gotten my butt spanked for being so careless. Another weird thing was after Grandpa told me there was a ghost in the house. And he'd always point to the phony shrunken head he got at Disneyland where the jungle cruise was. He told me that was the ghosts shrunken head. And when you turned on the hot water in the bathroom, the ghost would get pissed off and moan. Well one day in Grandma's room, I saw a dark hazy ghost. It was very melavalent, and scared me to death. I ran crying and many years later it occured to me. My grandfather had a great sense of humor, but that ghost I saw. It was my great grandmothers evil spirit. You might not believe in ghosts but this thing made the hair on my whole body stand up and sent a chill in my blood. This thing turned to look at me, and I felt like it was going to consume me.
Speaking of scary things that consume, when I was a todler. My Grandpa had a St. Bernard by the name of Bertha. Bertha was a big mean dog, and wouldn't have any qualms about eating me. It almost got me once I heard. It bit into a diaper and I was that close to being gobbled up. Tells you how well my parents looked after me. I remember once my mother left me in my dad's truck when she went into the grocery store. Apparently she hadn't set the emergency break. Stupid kid that I was, I popped the shift stick into nuetral and then I fell asleep. I woke up before my mom got back and I noticed the truck was half way out of the parking spot. I thought I was going to get my ass beat for sure. But she had to of pretended she didn't notice because she was embarassed.
My memories of playing on my grandfathers farm was just the best. But I got spanked by my grandma once and she had an arm like a horses leg. You could get spanked by her once and remember it the rest of your life. She wasn't a very healthy woman, but she was strong! She used to throw hay bales once. It's the only job I ever heard her having besides babysitting. She never was particulary pretty ever, but may of passed for cute. My dad said my grandpa married her because he knew she wasn't a slut. My grandpa knew what he was looking for, and he was scared to find a woman like his mom. My great grandmother was a beautiful and very intelligent woman. Like my mom mind you. Now my mom may qualify for the following statement too. My great grandfather was a John L. Warne, and my grandfather may of been a Jr. or and L. of a different kind. I don't know! But my great grandmother was Elizabeth. And I was told she was a very mean woman. She'd spy on the mexicans working in the fields and she would use a spyglass. If she caught them eating a cherry tomato she'd dock it from their pay. And she'd walk around the block picking up pieces of glass and acquired a rather large pile of glass from doing this. She once made my grandfather beat my grandmother with a switch for reasons unknown to us. As she had three boys, she apparently had always wanted a girl. And my grandfather who was the older, for some reason. Was picked to be dressed up like a girl for her. And he had grown long blonde ringlets. I saw this picture and wondered how we were allowed to ever see it. I think it was my dad who bequethed these things for me to see. He had always thought my grandfather a nice and great guy, but a little weird. He had a notion that my grandfather was some kind of nudist and would walk around the house naked. And here is something I'll never understand. I never saw my grandma naked and I thank god for that. It probably would of scared me for life. My grandma on my dad's side however I saw dressing infront of my little brother when they visisted us when we lived in Coto De Caza. Or undressing to redress I don't know. I'll never understand that, nor will I understand why my grandfather wanted to talk to me when he was on the toilet. Is there some written rule somewhere that people used to show what their old parts looked like so you knew what to expect when you get old?
Anyways, my Great Grandfather moved to San Francisco from England and bought a island in the San Francisco Bay. He didn't own it for long because it was just too expensive. He met my Great Grandmother and moved to Westminster where they became pioneers and endeavored to grow sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes would not grow well in the soil and I think I understand that they were diseased. So instead they grew lima beans that grew rather well there instead. They had a large amount of land. And had acquired about 700 acres in Imperial valley. How this came to be I'd like to know cause Imperial valley is along way from Westminster. My Great Grandfather would travel by wagon drawn by I think six norweigen horses. Or I heard the word mules but these were normal beasts of burden. They were big! I often heard a lot of conflicting tales. So he would drive his wagon all the way from Westminster to Trabuco Canyon and trade goods with the miners there who would mine in Holy Jim, which was the creek and national forest area that went up the side of Saddleback Mountain. (Not brokeback mountain you f*ckers!) He would also bring materials for some place near there which was a tin mine. As I heard it wasn't really a tin mine but perhaps some kind of shady business going on there. Could of been just speculation.
So anyways, at the farm I would often pretend to drive all the tractors, or the antique cars. And some of those cars all big, black, and monstrous looking would scare me. I wasn't used to seing anything like them. As a kid you kind of get the notion that everything back them was the same as it is now. And anything else was just monstrous or scary. Those cars from the 30-50's were just so different looking. When grandpa passed away there were like 30 cars or so that my mother had to take the registration slips to the DMV. My grandpa collected antiques like his life depended on it. He had 50 of those lil steam engines, and 2 of the original steam engines that powered las vegas before it became a casino empire. He had a bunch of these catipillar tractors that were just enormous to me. And during the bean threshing festivals that came to our farm once a year. six of those suckers would be running and sounding like they were going to blow the roof off the tin building. And these six enormous tractors would pull the worlds largest plow owned by my uncle henry and make a trench about 5 feet deep in the field. Me and the other kids would want to go in that trench because bam! You could pretend you were in WWII and hop into that trench and hunker down shooting at imaginary natzi's!
The farm had a large rat problem and the carts loaded with the water pipes being untouched for so long underneath the fig trees didn't help none. But boy where they sure fun to shoot at like my own personal shooting gallery tween the pipes with a beebee gun! The tin building had lots of cool machines that had all kinds of metal machine shop stuff, fan blades, and just about anything you could imagine. It was like a willy wonka factory but with tools and machines instead. One of my favorite past times were riding in my grandpas white van and heading out to Joshua Tree. The tools would be swinging and clanging, and we were going to the desert with him and my dad to shoot off bee bee guns and have our male bonding. Grandpa would humor me by buying me cactus cooler pop, and playing songs he figured i'd enjoy. I can't remember the artist but the songs were ," sneaky snake likes soda pop", and "I care, I do, there's no one like you. I wanto you to know I care."
When I was that young I had copper colored hair. As a older kid it got really dark, and it's been dark black for so long. You might have always assumed it was so, being that I was part italian, greek, and cherokee and Souix Indian. My brother and sister always had dark hair.
Anyways more about the farm. There was also a old dump truck, and a old semi truck with a flat bed. These were really old ones. There was also a behive on the farm which was in some metal contraption that looked like someone started to build the tin man from The Wizard of Oz before it became infest with bee's. As for pets on the ranch, there was a big yellow tom cat. His name was yellow and he was the first thing I would look for when I was there. Eventually we acquired Teddy's dog Jeff, and he was a really nice dog. Grandma would go through pugs or pikinese dogs quickly. They never survived long there because their house was always very dusty. I figured alot of it traveled in with my grandfather working the fields all his life. But you can't have a dirty dusty house with those kinds of dogs. Dust in their nose is like feeding them radiator fluid. So my grandmother was lonely and my mom gave her, her silky terrier Tasha. Grandma probably fed that dog table scraps because she became so diabetic after Grandma passed away. Grandpa went into the hospital for the cancer and when he got back. Grandma saw him coming up the stairs and maybe seeing him so frail being helped up the stairs sent Grandma's lungs into chaos because she couldn't breath. Grandpa came in, and Grandma was on her way out to the hospital where she suffered a stroke and died. At the time I wondered if Grandma was afraid of him, but I would never know. I often did get the impression that my grandfather wasn't the nicest guy to her. When grandma lossed her ring down the sink, she didn't get a new one. She had a fake one from that point on. She didn't have alot of clothing and none of them very nice either. Her clothes often had a hole or two. She never drove a car. Mom would have to drive her in the thunderbird. Grandma would never be able to fit into my mom's cougar. What I loved most about grandma is sitting on her lap. She always sat in her chair which was behind grandpas desk chair. Or we'd watch tv together. Soap opera's were't my favorite but it was still time spent with grandma. Grandma used to sing padicake to me and all kinds of silly stuff like that. She'd watch me just play with my toys on the floor. And these toys were soo old. There was a top that was an antique. It was made out of metal and could probably hurt someone real good if you hit em with it. I always thought it was weird, we always went int the house through the back. The front of the house we never went into pretty much. It was where all the nick nacks were. China, pretty stuff to look at. It was like a antique store, cramped and pretty. Kind of like a doll house where everything was crambed into one room. Interesting enough the whole place was fenced off except for the field. And we had asian banana tree's lining the side of the drive way up to the chain fence gate. This became a problem later on when up and down Bolsa Ave became Vietnamese town. A large Vietnamese grocerty store arose across the street with large white marble cats placed at the sides. It was like a korean metropolis all of a sudden. It was like a veitnamese monument arose right there. And the koreans had their eyes on the banana tree's because they were their favorite to cook with. And the tree's were going to suffer from them coming over and stealing the leaves. They were sometimes offering to buy them but they refused to understand. The tree's were going to die! And these were my grandfather's pride as he was in the newspaper because of these tree's growing and thriving. These banana's tasted a bit thick and chalky compared to other banana's. They took a bit to get used to. But they were probably as organic as you could get, and probably great for diets and smoothies I suppose. They had a rather buttery taste to them.
Oh and I remember biting into a percimon. Don't do that! Woah! You cook them otherwise they taste like shit! Well some people enjoy eating a ripe one, but I never could tell the difference and biting into a bad one could send you off them for life.
Wierd things that happened to me there though. I once fell backwards while walking across one of the disc plow things that get dragged behind a tractor to till the field. I somehow managed a backflip to avoid falling backwards onto those disc's. I could of been really hurt. I never told anyone about that because I probably would not be believed, or gotten my butt spanked for being so careless. Another weird thing was after Grandpa told me there was a ghost in the house. And he'd always point to the phony shrunken head he got at Disneyland where the jungle cruise was. He told me that was the ghosts shrunken head. And when you turned on the hot water in the bathroom, the ghost would get pissed off and moan. Well one day in Grandma's room, I saw a dark hazy ghost. It was very melavalent, and scared me to death. I ran crying and many years later it occured to me. My grandfather had a great sense of humor, but that ghost I saw. It was my great grandmothers evil spirit. You might not believe in ghosts but this thing made the hair on my whole body stand up and sent a chill in my blood. This thing turned to look at me, and I felt like it was going to consume me.
Speaking of scary things that consume, when I was a todler. My Grandpa had a St. Bernard by the name of Bertha. Bertha was a big mean dog, and wouldn't have any qualms about eating me. It almost got me once I heard. It bit into a diaper and I was that close to being gobbled up. Tells you how well my parents looked after me. I remember once my mother left me in my dad's truck when she went into the grocery store. Apparently she hadn't set the emergency break. Stupid kid that I was, I popped the shift stick into nuetral and then I fell asleep. I woke up before my mom got back and I noticed the truck was half way out of the parking spot. I thought I was going to get my ass beat for sure. But she had to of pretended she didn't notice because she was embarassed.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
More beginnings
At that special school I went to I was often very helpful, and would help the kids out in wheel chairs when I could. But generally they kept us half way normal kids away from the special needs kids.
I also remember that I wore a special ID bracelet for being allergic to PCN. The house we lived in on what was called El Capitan (I always pronouned it "L Cap it ten") Was off of Brookhurst. I remember when my sister was born and I was dismayed that she had stuck her tongue at me. It was my first time being a brother. And I was eager to have a playmate. And it had struck me that having an equal balance was important so I thought the bady should be a girl. As I was told my dad was a horrible babysitter, and one day as I remember. I was almost kidnapped while riding on my bike, a car pulled up. For some reason I think it must of been someone that knew my parents. I didn't know them but for some reason they asked me if I wanted to go to the snow. And it was freaky cause I had always wanted to go play in the snow. To slide down snowy hills on a sled, make snow men, throw snow balls and roll around in all that white fun stuff. I was always bugging my parents to take me to Santa's Village. And here it was right on the plate everything I had always wanted. They stopped their car right next to the side walk, pushed the door open. And I didn't know them so I eased onto my bike seat and pedled as fast as my legs could peddle. Our neighbors, Robins Dad was a CIA guy or something. He had worked for President Jimmy Carter if I heard right. And he was interviewing me for what I had seen. Nothing ever came of this. But I'll always remember that day as the day I could of been kidnapped. I remember when we went to see bugs bunny on ice. I also remember having a retainer, and I hated that thing and my ID bracelet. The retainer always felt icky in my mouth. And it made me feel like I wanted to vomit because I didn't feel like it belonged in my mouth. And I was always afraid I was going to bit into it, which I probably did if I remember right.
My mom doesn't remember most of any of this stuff, and I always took offense. My fondest memories were when we had the film projector up at home to rewatch family video's. Some film my dad purchased that may of had laurel and hardy on it, and another comedian I can't remember. Big heavy guy, not Abbot and Costello, not the Marx brothers, or Charlie Chapman, but somewhere between those era's of time. We also enjoyed watching our christmas times together, the shot where I pinched Robin on her but. A clip where I was jumping up and down ( I must of had some sugar in me) which I think the occasion was Easter and I had candy with me. What I was doing apparently was waving my arms like I was a side ways wirly bird, and rotating them fast around before my jump was finished or something. I'm not exactly sure, but I was very impressed with myself. And the funnest part of these video's where the motorcycle riding. One of my dad's friends (Ray who was related to my half brothers) was driving around with a mask on, and apparently it was to make fun of my Grandpa driving around on his motorcycle.
I think it caught the scene where I think it was ray drove over and landed in a whole bunch of cacti. I think he was kind of accident prone. But the most painful memories was on this film as well. And it was an example of how my mother often treated me. I had gotten a box with winnie the pooh on it for Christmas. And for being a young kid, that's what it was. But with a voice that suggested I was retarded, my mother pointed out it was for my records. And it occurs to me, that my mother often spoke to me like I was stupid, and that I was her greatest embarassment all the time. I have psoriasis, and that includes the scalp as well. Getting a haircut would often be embarassing, especially to my mom. Now my skin is alot better than it was, but one time while getting a hair cut. The stylist was acting like I had bugs in my hair and she was not having a good time. My mom in turn was embarassed and when I got home I would have to spend about 10 minutes brushing my hair in an attempt to get rid of the offending scalp upon my head.
It occured to me at that time that the stylist was very unprofessional and my mom did not stand up for me. My sister was generally a good friend to me as a todler. We had a lot of fun as she was such a cute and funny little baby. Sometimes when I'd lay on the floor, my sister would jump up and down on my belly, and she'd squeel "adoooo" and I'd bust up laughing as the air was forced out of my lungs. She would say the silliest things, like "Snoopy is noopie" and instead of singing batman, she'd sing "badman" over and over. During Thanksgiving we would often look at each other funny as I liked Olives, and she loved pickles. Those were our Thanksgiving favorite eats. My mom was very protective of my sister, and I thought she was going to kill me when I was horsing around with her in our backyard pool. We had these blow up lightbulb inflatable things. And I took one of them and smacked my young sister in the head with one. I just wanted to play, and she was the only one there to play with at the time. Now when my brother came along, he was a strange looking kid. Little did I know, my sister had dropped him on his head, as she was jealous of the new baby. I didn't know about this till a few years ago from today. Or three years. I heard it from my stepfather of all people, so I asked my dad who said it wasn't true. My sister though claimed it was true. She said it with no shame either. Me, I would of been devastated through my entire life if I had done that. It made me think to myself how lucky I am that I was first born. That could of been me!
My brother as a lil kid, todler, baby, had a big head from the top of his head, then narrowed to his chin. He kind of looked like an upside down hershey kiss! And he was always in the walker, and smacking around "zo0oom" smack! All over the kitchen like he was the ball, and the kitchen was the pinball machine. I always thought to myself that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. And I wondered if that was what made him such a special case today. Well it sure as hell wasn't helping any I can tell you that. He'd smack around in there all day like he was trying to kill himself, and it's a wonder we didn't have to replace the whole kitchen.
I remember we had visisted our grandma on my dad's side during that time. I often thought he was joking when he said all they ate was grits every meal of the day. I couldn't eat the stuff at the time, and they had to acquire a box of sugar smacks for me otherwise I wasn't going to eat. It snowed one of those visits and my dad and grandpa Pud, and perhaps my uncle went hunting for deer. They didn't find anything but they sure as hell didn't see the one that was staring at us outside which we could see from the window. My grandmother became very religious at some point in her life, and the night light in the bathroom kind of scared me. There were aspects about religion that scared me that I never understood. Even though our neighbor would occasionaly take me to church with them and Robin. Or on our way to a store, we'd sing those christian songs. "If the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack", or "He's got the whole world, in his hands". And I remember Robins mom being so very pretty. To me she looked like Debbie Harry, without the punk look. She was terribly afraid of frogs, and when she'd see one. She'd scream for me to get it and remove it. And I'd scoop up the frog "my favorite things in the world" and I'd talk to it telling it, it was ok, and I wasn't going to let that crazy ladie hurt you".
When we moved from there to Trabuco Cyn, I thought to myself my friends should of appreciated me more. But I had missed them and I had a lot of fun living there. I never understood why we moved. But my mom always wanted to live in the country and have horses. We visited my friends or our old neighbor a couple of times. But everyone remembered me as the kid that kissed Lisa, and it was like I had cooties. And then there was the sliding glass door we had. I just remembered this, I must of hit that sucker with a ball and I broke it. Boy was my dad mad! The yard we had was awesome because we had a barrel that had strawberries flowing out of it's holes in the side. There was a huge toad back there that would occasionaly emerge from what ever it was hiding beneath. And Pal our black retriever was back there, and my mother silky terrier Tasha was back there. Those two dogs loved each other. Often my mom would visit my Aunt Elaine, and I'd have a ball playing with my cousin Vicky. My other cousin who was a baby at the time, was Julie. Julie grew up to be a real brat as what I heard. Vicky was always sweet, but ended up in a not so good marriage but with a lot of kids. One time we visited when I was still a kid, and I gues Vicky got in trouble. It kind of spoiled our visit because we had to leave. I dont' remember what was said, but I repeated to Vicky the next time what my mom said, and Vicky told her mom. And I think that but a crux in their friendship for a bit. Aunt Elaine eventually divorced Vicky's dad. He was a really tall guy who I understand was in Nam. He grew out his beard and hair really long, and he was really scary looking to me. My Uncle Dick died, whom I knew little about, other than he was Uncle Henry's son and he drove a big yellow truck with alot of tools on it. I often enjoyed being baby sat by Aunt Meriam, or Uncle Tom's Wife who'm I can't tell you her name. Uncle Tom didn't seem all that bright, and he enjoyed antagonizing me. Uncle Henry seemed ok to me. He may of been a little imposing. I understood he refused to interview with the historical society, and Uncle Henry's interview was really lame. My grandfather's interview with them was very good. We were all impressed with how well he held himself. Though he was a real mess dying of the cancer. He fought it with everything he had. We all assumed he was so afraid to die, and it showed. My Grandpa was the most important person in the world to me. He loved me so much and always cherished my drawings of my versions of antique cars. We adored his good-bye kisses with him tickling our cheeks with his whiskers. He always called me lil Stevie, which is why today I have a son I call Stevie, to remember him. I couldn't name him John because that's my brother's name. John L. Warne was his full name I think. My favorite things were when he'd take me on a ride on a tractor or for a ride in his military jeep.
I also remember that I wore a special ID bracelet for being allergic to PCN. The house we lived in on what was called El Capitan (I always pronouned it "L Cap it ten") Was off of Brookhurst. I remember when my sister was born and I was dismayed that she had stuck her tongue at me. It was my first time being a brother. And I was eager to have a playmate. And it had struck me that having an equal balance was important so I thought the bady should be a girl. As I was told my dad was a horrible babysitter, and one day as I remember. I was almost kidnapped while riding on my bike, a car pulled up. For some reason I think it must of been someone that knew my parents. I didn't know them but for some reason they asked me if I wanted to go to the snow. And it was freaky cause I had always wanted to go play in the snow. To slide down snowy hills on a sled, make snow men, throw snow balls and roll around in all that white fun stuff. I was always bugging my parents to take me to Santa's Village. And here it was right on the plate everything I had always wanted. They stopped their car right next to the side walk, pushed the door open. And I didn't know them so I eased onto my bike seat and pedled as fast as my legs could peddle. Our neighbors, Robins Dad was a CIA guy or something. He had worked for President Jimmy Carter if I heard right. And he was interviewing me for what I had seen. Nothing ever came of this. But I'll always remember that day as the day I could of been kidnapped. I remember when we went to see bugs bunny on ice. I also remember having a retainer, and I hated that thing and my ID bracelet. The retainer always felt icky in my mouth. And it made me feel like I wanted to vomit because I didn't feel like it belonged in my mouth. And I was always afraid I was going to bit into it, which I probably did if I remember right.
My mom doesn't remember most of any of this stuff, and I always took offense. My fondest memories were when we had the film projector up at home to rewatch family video's. Some film my dad purchased that may of had laurel and hardy on it, and another comedian I can't remember. Big heavy guy, not Abbot and Costello, not the Marx brothers, or Charlie Chapman, but somewhere between those era's of time. We also enjoyed watching our christmas times together, the shot where I pinched Robin on her but. A clip where I was jumping up and down ( I must of had some sugar in me) which I think the occasion was Easter and I had candy with me. What I was doing apparently was waving my arms like I was a side ways wirly bird, and rotating them fast around before my jump was finished or something. I'm not exactly sure, but I was very impressed with myself. And the funnest part of these video's where the motorcycle riding. One of my dad's friends (Ray who was related to my half brothers) was driving around with a mask on, and apparently it was to make fun of my Grandpa driving around on his motorcycle.
I think it caught the scene where I think it was ray drove over and landed in a whole bunch of cacti. I think he was kind of accident prone. But the most painful memories was on this film as well. And it was an example of how my mother often treated me. I had gotten a box with winnie the pooh on it for Christmas. And for being a young kid, that's what it was. But with a voice that suggested I was retarded, my mother pointed out it was for my records. And it occurs to me, that my mother often spoke to me like I was stupid, and that I was her greatest embarassment all the time. I have psoriasis, and that includes the scalp as well. Getting a haircut would often be embarassing, especially to my mom. Now my skin is alot better than it was, but one time while getting a hair cut. The stylist was acting like I had bugs in my hair and she was not having a good time. My mom in turn was embarassed and when I got home I would have to spend about 10 minutes brushing my hair in an attempt to get rid of the offending scalp upon my head.
It occured to me at that time that the stylist was very unprofessional and my mom did not stand up for me. My sister was generally a good friend to me as a todler. We had a lot of fun as she was such a cute and funny little baby. Sometimes when I'd lay on the floor, my sister would jump up and down on my belly, and she'd squeel "adoooo" and I'd bust up laughing as the air was forced out of my lungs. She would say the silliest things, like "Snoopy is noopie" and instead of singing batman, she'd sing "badman" over and over. During Thanksgiving we would often look at each other funny as I liked Olives, and she loved pickles. Those were our Thanksgiving favorite eats. My mom was very protective of my sister, and I thought she was going to kill me when I was horsing around with her in our backyard pool. We had these blow up lightbulb inflatable things. And I took one of them and smacked my young sister in the head with one. I just wanted to play, and she was the only one there to play with at the time. Now when my brother came along, he was a strange looking kid. Little did I know, my sister had dropped him on his head, as she was jealous of the new baby. I didn't know about this till a few years ago from today. Or three years. I heard it from my stepfather of all people, so I asked my dad who said it wasn't true. My sister though claimed it was true. She said it with no shame either. Me, I would of been devastated through my entire life if I had done that. It made me think to myself how lucky I am that I was first born. That could of been me!
My brother as a lil kid, todler, baby, had a big head from the top of his head, then narrowed to his chin. He kind of looked like an upside down hershey kiss! And he was always in the walker, and smacking around "zo0oom" smack! All over the kitchen like he was the ball, and the kitchen was the pinball machine. I always thought to myself that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. And I wondered if that was what made him such a special case today. Well it sure as hell wasn't helping any I can tell you that. He'd smack around in there all day like he was trying to kill himself, and it's a wonder we didn't have to replace the whole kitchen.
I remember we had visisted our grandma on my dad's side during that time. I often thought he was joking when he said all they ate was grits every meal of the day. I couldn't eat the stuff at the time, and they had to acquire a box of sugar smacks for me otherwise I wasn't going to eat. It snowed one of those visits and my dad and grandpa Pud, and perhaps my uncle went hunting for deer. They didn't find anything but they sure as hell didn't see the one that was staring at us outside which we could see from the window. My grandmother became very religious at some point in her life, and the night light in the bathroom kind of scared me. There were aspects about religion that scared me that I never understood. Even though our neighbor would occasionaly take me to church with them and Robin. Or on our way to a store, we'd sing those christian songs. "If the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack", or "He's got the whole world, in his hands". And I remember Robins mom being so very pretty. To me she looked like Debbie Harry, without the punk look. She was terribly afraid of frogs, and when she'd see one. She'd scream for me to get it and remove it. And I'd scoop up the frog "my favorite things in the world" and I'd talk to it telling it, it was ok, and I wasn't going to let that crazy ladie hurt you".
When we moved from there to Trabuco Cyn, I thought to myself my friends should of appreciated me more. But I had missed them and I had a lot of fun living there. I never understood why we moved. But my mom always wanted to live in the country and have horses. We visited my friends or our old neighbor a couple of times. But everyone remembered me as the kid that kissed Lisa, and it was like I had cooties. And then there was the sliding glass door we had. I just remembered this, I must of hit that sucker with a ball and I broke it. Boy was my dad mad! The yard we had was awesome because we had a barrel that had strawberries flowing out of it's holes in the side. There was a huge toad back there that would occasionaly emerge from what ever it was hiding beneath. And Pal our black retriever was back there, and my mother silky terrier Tasha was back there. Those two dogs loved each other. Often my mom would visit my Aunt Elaine, and I'd have a ball playing with my cousin Vicky. My other cousin who was a baby at the time, was Julie. Julie grew up to be a real brat as what I heard. Vicky was always sweet, but ended up in a not so good marriage but with a lot of kids. One time we visited when I was still a kid, and I gues Vicky got in trouble. It kind of spoiled our visit because we had to leave. I dont' remember what was said, but I repeated to Vicky the next time what my mom said, and Vicky told her mom. And I think that but a crux in their friendship for a bit. Aunt Elaine eventually divorced Vicky's dad. He was a really tall guy who I understand was in Nam. He grew out his beard and hair really long, and he was really scary looking to me. My Uncle Dick died, whom I knew little about, other than he was Uncle Henry's son and he drove a big yellow truck with alot of tools on it. I often enjoyed being baby sat by Aunt Meriam, or Uncle Tom's Wife who'm I can't tell you her name. Uncle Tom didn't seem all that bright, and he enjoyed antagonizing me. Uncle Henry seemed ok to me. He may of been a little imposing. I understood he refused to interview with the historical society, and Uncle Henry's interview was really lame. My grandfather's interview with them was very good. We were all impressed with how well he held himself. Though he was a real mess dying of the cancer. He fought it with everything he had. We all assumed he was so afraid to die, and it showed. My Grandpa was the most important person in the world to me. He loved me so much and always cherished my drawings of my versions of antique cars. We adored his good-bye kisses with him tickling our cheeks with his whiskers. He always called me lil Stevie, which is why today I have a son I call Stevie, to remember him. I couldn't name him John because that's my brother's name. John L. Warne was his full name I think. My favorite things were when he'd take me on a ride on a tractor or for a ride in his military jeep.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My beginnings
My dad "Delmer Hatchell born in S. Carolina, raised in N. Carolina met my mom while working at a grocery store near Westminster CA. My mom was prompted by her friend Josie to talk to the cute guy in her own words. As told by my dad, my mother didn't believe she could get pregnant, and so there I was. He believed he was tricked but he had always loved her. He was married before and had three boys. But he went on a lil walk about with a blonde and went to Vegas. When he got back home, Linda was angry of course. She grabbed him by his balls and threatened him. Delmer didn't like that very much and supposedly hit her.
I think my dad always loved my step brothers but was never good at keeping in touch or expressing his feelings. I always felt bad for them that they were either nothing to him, or pawns to be played with. And I knew that my brother, and sister and I were always more important. I never understood this. So we were as if we were always going to be as what we were.
When I was a kid I thought my dad was the coolest ever. My mom I could never figure out but when she was young I always thought my mom was the most beautiful woman ever. And she was very attentive in a naive way and I believed she loved us all very much.
My dad was a alchoholic and had a tendency to be angry. There were times I wasn't privy to that they would fight. Often at one period of our lives they seemed to fight often, loud, and we were often scared. Times we were not privy to this, there were some physically unappropriate things done. My dad as I heard had hit my mom or knocked her down in the front yard when my uncle was pulling up. I heard he was gonna call the cops, but that's all I heard about it. There was a time my mom hit my dad with a lamp and apparently he had it coming. My dad including my mom in my opinion shouldn't of ever had kids are they were very ill prepared for such things.
The first place we lived in was the green house off of Bolsa Ave. near Brookurst in Westminster, CA. It has always been a busy road, and it was scary to think how small I was and how poorly watched I was that I may have wandered into the middle of the street. My first memories were of the philipino people next door, eating candle wax with our dog Pal. Taking baths in a metal tub, the sink, and playing with my rubber hammer that squeeked.
Eventually we moved to Huntington Beach, where I made a friend named Nate. I had a crush on our neighbor "Robin". I flunked kindergarten so I had to go to a special school because a teacher informed my mom that "I'm retarded". I was never retarded mind you I just had a attention deficit disorder. Or ADHD, I was very hyper, and my dad would suggest sugar was poison to me.
One of my memories there was the lil black girl on the block "Lisa" and I apparently had kisses. Probably just out of curiosity. Lisa was my pal, but we were just inquisitive kids who enjoyed each other's company. This whole thing of course had some people talking. Louie who was her father, "Big Louie" spoke with my parents. I heard there response was that they didn't like it, and they are rascist too. I remember that some people were not happy about me taking liberties with the chalk on the sidewalk. And I also got in big trouble with my parents for lying about crossing the street. This street wasn't like a major street. Today I feel it shouldn't of been a big deal. It's just other kids were allowed to go across the street and make friends with the kids over there. I was the lil dummy that couldn't cross the street. Well I got the shit spanked out of me and from that point. My mother never let me forget that I was a liar! I was never to be forgiven for that. Another memory was when I was trying to be friendly with lil Louie but apparently it wasn't cool because he had a friend over. So here I was trying to be friendly to two black kids and we were getting into it. And I picked up one kid off the ground with one arm, and ready to sock the other kid with my other. That's when Mike on his bicycle rode by and he said "wow I can't wait to tell Delmer" and I dropped the kid and ran home right away, scared to death I was going to get in trouble for getting into a fight. Well, I couldn't of been a bigger stud as they were slapping me on the back. And suggesting that it was acceptible to beat up lil (n*ggers). Just so you know I don't dislike black people, it was just one of the very few times I had experienced any rascism at all. From that point on there was some confusion in my life about how black and white people should behave around each other.
Another thing I remember is wanting nothing more than to just hang out with Robin all the time. I even pulled some stunt like hiding in the closet so I didn't have to leave. I scared the crap out of my mom and Robins mom. I also remember that we have on film camera where I was in a kiddie pool with Robin and as she stepped out of it, I had reached over and pinched her butt. There were times when my dad and I would walk to the beach and throw the ball for Pal. We'd go fishing in the ditch. And we'd go riding dirt bikes with his friends. According to my mom, there was one time my dad tried to take me against her will when she felt I was too young. And she threw a beer in his face and grabbed me from him. I remember how excited I was when I thought I was going to school with Robin. But I was only going to learn how to swim in the same class. When they wanted us to jump off the diving board, I was scared to death. I was truly really scared! So what they did is they take you to the diving board that was like looking down from a sky scraper and jumping into what looked like from there a lil kiddie pool! This is an exageration of course but it was fucking scary to a lil kid, I may of been 4, 5? Hell I dont' know but I was little and in kindergarten. And the swimming teacher would holler and yell and scream at you for 5 minutes to jump off that god damn diving board or they were going to push you. And they did that to one kid and you knew it was coming if you didn't jump. And you could wish to hit that water and break your neck and die, because at least they would be done screaming at you.
The special school I went to there were a few slow kids. We loved our teachers, I remember the assistant teacher was Misses Kay. We loved both our teachers and always wanted to pick flowers. Never mind we kept forgetting she was allergic. I remember one kid, I think she was asian or pacific islander, she was really slow and when she came back from the dentist. She had to of chomped down on her tongue many times from it being numb with novacain. It looked like a piece of bacon, or cooked pork that got ran over by a street car. And the scariest thing that happened there was some special needs guy and he was big like Sloth from Goonies! He was in the bathroom when me and another kid were in there. He told us he was gonna spank us, and we believed it cause he grabbed us and tried pulling us into a toilet stall. I was freaking out and I kicked and pulled and squirmed and ran full throttle to the teachers. And with terror in my eyes, "that guy was gonna spank us in the bathroom, and he's got the other kid and he's gonna spank him! Hurry" So we went to the bathroom and the guy was just sitting on the toilet, with the kid sitting on his knee and they were talking. The teachers I'm sure didn't want me to be afriad, so they told me it was ok and he wasn't really going to spank us. What else I remember about living there was Nate and I were best friends but we always fought. And we vowed we would always have to fight someone because the kid on the other side of the block was our arch enemie because he would stick yucky things in the girls faces and we didn't like that. Never mind that to Nate girls were yucky and had cooties. Nate's places was always really cool and his mom was the coolest mom ever. Nate liked super hero's like captain america, and we talked about the Hulk, and batman, tatoo's. And we enjoyed riding our bikes, and playing with my evil kneivel toy. And the six million dollar man! He was my favorite! Steve Austin whom my dad would jokingly tell me that he named me after. When we hung out at Nate's ( I always called him Nat which drove him up the wall) because he wasn't a bug. And because of my last name he'd call me Stevie Chopper and it would always make me throw a fit. And one time when I was to have supper at his place, and he called me Stevie Chopper, I got pissed and rode my bike home. Nate chased me and cried for me to come back, but I wanted to teach him a lesson. From that point on I was never allowed to go over again because my mom was embarassed and wanting to teach me a lesson. And all her lessons I didn't feel were for me never to forget. They were always that "she never forget". Then there were times I tried to blow bubbles with dish soap with Nate and his brother. I could never do it right as we used straws, and not the lil bubble wands. I never understood why they didn't get the real bubble stuff. And I was always sucking down dish liquid yuck! And they would laugh at me. And the fact I couldn't whistle either. I also remember riding our bikes with Nates mom, and I accidentaly rode off the path and went downhill going a bit fast and out of control. I hit a big rock, and I was unhurt. My bike was twisted a bit from the wheel and handle bars, but Nates mom grabbed it and bent it back. I thought she had super powers! lol.
I think my dad always loved my step brothers but was never good at keeping in touch or expressing his feelings. I always felt bad for them that they were either nothing to him, or pawns to be played with. And I knew that my brother, and sister and I were always more important. I never understood this. So we were as if we were always going to be as what we were.
When I was a kid I thought my dad was the coolest ever. My mom I could never figure out but when she was young I always thought my mom was the most beautiful woman ever. And she was very attentive in a naive way and I believed she loved us all very much.
My dad was a alchoholic and had a tendency to be angry. There were times I wasn't privy to that they would fight. Often at one period of our lives they seemed to fight often, loud, and we were often scared. Times we were not privy to this, there were some physically unappropriate things done. My dad as I heard had hit my mom or knocked her down in the front yard when my uncle was pulling up. I heard he was gonna call the cops, but that's all I heard about it. There was a time my mom hit my dad with a lamp and apparently he had it coming. My dad including my mom in my opinion shouldn't of ever had kids are they were very ill prepared for such things.
The first place we lived in was the green house off of Bolsa Ave. near Brookurst in Westminster, CA. It has always been a busy road, and it was scary to think how small I was and how poorly watched I was that I may have wandered into the middle of the street. My first memories were of the philipino people next door, eating candle wax with our dog Pal. Taking baths in a metal tub, the sink, and playing with my rubber hammer that squeeked.
Eventually we moved to Huntington Beach, where I made a friend named Nate. I had a crush on our neighbor "Robin". I flunked kindergarten so I had to go to a special school because a teacher informed my mom that "I'm retarded". I was never retarded mind you I just had a attention deficit disorder. Or ADHD, I was very hyper, and my dad would suggest sugar was poison to me.
One of my memories there was the lil black girl on the block "Lisa" and I apparently had kisses. Probably just out of curiosity. Lisa was my pal, but we were just inquisitive kids who enjoyed each other's company. This whole thing of course had some people talking. Louie who was her father, "Big Louie" spoke with my parents. I heard there response was that they didn't like it, and they are rascist too. I remember that some people were not happy about me taking liberties with the chalk on the sidewalk. And I also got in big trouble with my parents for lying about crossing the street. This street wasn't like a major street. Today I feel it shouldn't of been a big deal. It's just other kids were allowed to go across the street and make friends with the kids over there. I was the lil dummy that couldn't cross the street. Well I got the shit spanked out of me and from that point. My mother never let me forget that I was a liar! I was never to be forgiven for that. Another memory was when I was trying to be friendly with lil Louie but apparently it wasn't cool because he had a friend over. So here I was trying to be friendly to two black kids and we were getting into it. And I picked up one kid off the ground with one arm, and ready to sock the other kid with my other. That's when Mike on his bicycle rode by and he said "wow I can't wait to tell Delmer" and I dropped the kid and ran home right away, scared to death I was going to get in trouble for getting into a fight. Well, I couldn't of been a bigger stud as they were slapping me on the back. And suggesting that it was acceptible to beat up lil (n*ggers). Just so you know I don't dislike black people, it was just one of the very few times I had experienced any rascism at all. From that point on there was some confusion in my life about how black and white people should behave around each other.
Another thing I remember is wanting nothing more than to just hang out with Robin all the time. I even pulled some stunt like hiding in the closet so I didn't have to leave. I scared the crap out of my mom and Robins mom. I also remember that we have on film camera where I was in a kiddie pool with Robin and as she stepped out of it, I had reached over and pinched her butt. There were times when my dad and I would walk to the beach and throw the ball for Pal. We'd go fishing in the ditch. And we'd go riding dirt bikes with his friends. According to my mom, there was one time my dad tried to take me against her will when she felt I was too young. And she threw a beer in his face and grabbed me from him. I remember how excited I was when I thought I was going to school with Robin. But I was only going to learn how to swim in the same class. When they wanted us to jump off the diving board, I was scared to death. I was truly really scared! So what they did is they take you to the diving board that was like looking down from a sky scraper and jumping into what looked like from there a lil kiddie pool! This is an exageration of course but it was fucking scary to a lil kid, I may of been 4, 5? Hell I dont' know but I was little and in kindergarten. And the swimming teacher would holler and yell and scream at you for 5 minutes to jump off that god damn diving board or they were going to push you. And they did that to one kid and you knew it was coming if you didn't jump. And you could wish to hit that water and break your neck and die, because at least they would be done screaming at you.
The special school I went to there were a few slow kids. We loved our teachers, I remember the assistant teacher was Misses Kay. We loved both our teachers and always wanted to pick flowers. Never mind we kept forgetting she was allergic. I remember one kid, I think she was asian or pacific islander, she was really slow and when she came back from the dentist. She had to of chomped down on her tongue many times from it being numb with novacain. It looked like a piece of bacon, or cooked pork that got ran over by a street car. And the scariest thing that happened there was some special needs guy and he was big like Sloth from Goonies! He was in the bathroom when me and another kid were in there. He told us he was gonna spank us, and we believed it cause he grabbed us and tried pulling us into a toilet stall. I was freaking out and I kicked and pulled and squirmed and ran full throttle to the teachers. And with terror in my eyes, "that guy was gonna spank us in the bathroom, and he's got the other kid and he's gonna spank him! Hurry" So we went to the bathroom and the guy was just sitting on the toilet, with the kid sitting on his knee and they were talking. The teachers I'm sure didn't want me to be afriad, so they told me it was ok and he wasn't really going to spank us. What else I remember about living there was Nate and I were best friends but we always fought. And we vowed we would always have to fight someone because the kid on the other side of the block was our arch enemie because he would stick yucky things in the girls faces and we didn't like that. Never mind that to Nate girls were yucky and had cooties. Nate's places was always really cool and his mom was the coolest mom ever. Nate liked super hero's like captain america, and we talked about the Hulk, and batman, tatoo's. And we enjoyed riding our bikes, and playing with my evil kneivel toy. And the six million dollar man! He was my favorite! Steve Austin whom my dad would jokingly tell me that he named me after. When we hung out at Nate's ( I always called him Nat which drove him up the wall) because he wasn't a bug. And because of my last name he'd call me Stevie Chopper and it would always make me throw a fit. And one time when I was to have supper at his place, and he called me Stevie Chopper, I got pissed and rode my bike home. Nate chased me and cried for me to come back, but I wanted to teach him a lesson. From that point on I was never allowed to go over again because my mom was embarassed and wanting to teach me a lesson. And all her lessons I didn't feel were for me never to forget. They were always that "she never forget". Then there were times I tried to blow bubbles with dish soap with Nate and his brother. I could never do it right as we used straws, and not the lil bubble wands. I never understood why they didn't get the real bubble stuff. And I was always sucking down dish liquid yuck! And they would laugh at me. And the fact I couldn't whistle either. I also remember riding our bikes with Nates mom, and I accidentaly rode off the path and went downhill going a bit fast and out of control. I hit a big rock, and I was unhurt. My bike was twisted a bit from the wheel and handle bars, but Nates mom grabbed it and bent it back. I thought she had super powers! lol.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
