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.