We lived in military quarters in Louisiana. If I remember right, it was a two bedroom duplex. I remember that was when we found one of our favorite cat over the years. My mother, brother and I were on base for something. All or most the building in Louisiana were on stilts. My brother and I were playing under the walk way of the wrap around porch of the building my mother was at taking care of whatever business.

Under that walkway, there was a hole in the way with a hand full of new born kittens. I don’t remember all the details, but we went home and got a picnic basket; then went back to gather up all the kittens. They were not nice! I remember I stuck my arm in the hole and pulled out ever single one of them and threw them into that basket. My arm was a bloody mess from all the cat scratches, but I got all of them.

We took them home and finished raising them till we found homes for all of them except one, Kibby. Kibby was the meanest one of them all, so no one wanted him. Kibby ended up getting his name because my brother had hearing problems and ended up having to get tubes put into his ears; so when we said kitty, he thought we were saying kibby. So that became his name. He turned out to be a very good cat and one of our favorites.

I always thought it was because of my dyslexia growing up that got Kibby his name because I always wrote my d’s and b’s backwards, I still do sometimes. But kitty is not spelled with d’s. So what I remembers is me spelling our cat Kibby’s name wrong, not kitty. But my father remembered, and corrected my memory years later. Growing up I had major spelling, dyslexia and reading comprehension issues.

1981

I remember various things at random from back then. I remember getting ring warms. I remember having a Dalmatian that the fire department ended up wanting to adopt, so we donated him/her to them. They came by to wash our houses down so many times a month to reduce fire risks during certain times a year, so we thought we would see our dog still from time to time, but I don’t remember ever seeing her ever again.

I remember for whatever reason, I pulled a buck knife on the neighbor black kids and threatening to kill him. My parents we not prejudice, but parts of their family were; so that’s the only reason I can think I might have done that. Unless he was picking on my brother, I was VERY protective of my brother growing up. I got into a lot of fights because of him… but that’s later after we were older.

 

I remember a really cool Halloween one year and I remember my babysitter taking advantage of me. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember a lot. My brother was downstairs watching TV I think and she would take me into her room to play Doctor and stuff. I also remember one time her’s and my mother came home early. Oops! Yeah… She got into so much trouble. I didn’t know any better, but I remember I was told to stay away from her and I did.

Looking back, I am just glad it wasn’t a dude; but either way it’s was not right. I also remember one of my best friends was def, so I knew sign language pretty well. I also remember that we had another cat we called Scaredy Cat. It ended up running away because my brother tormented it too much. I remember spending hours in the wood looking for him/her, but never found em. That might have been before Kibby. Kibby would not have let Mark torcher him, Kibby ran the show.

1982

My father went to Germany in late spring early summer; my mother, brother and I stayed in Kansas City till Fall when we went over to Germany ourselves after my father got established. My father was stationed at  Ray Barracks Army base in Friedberg, Germany. We had to leave Kibby behind, but my grandparents kept him for us.

We lived in Butzbach, Germany for about 4-5 months; them moved to Bad Nauheim, Germany the fallowing year. The housing complex’s our families live in were like large apartment buildings. Four story buildings, with two stair wells with a total of 15 apartment. However; the top middle apartment was the size of two apartment, like a master suite. The laundry rooms were in the basement.

 

 

We didn’t have balconies, we lived in the upper middle attic space. Which was quite awesome actually. We had the most cool apartment with like a dozen rooms. My father, brother and I would build forts at each end of the long hallway, my dad rolled his green army socks up into balls and we use them as grenades; throwing them back and forth down the hallways at each other ducking between rooms for different advantages. That was totally wicked awesome.

We also had a different room for everything. One room was the library, I think my brother and I had our own rooms, my dad had a couple rooms for whatever he wanted and my mother too. I remember in one room we had a huge electric train set we built on platforms so that it would be at waist height. It’s just too bad we only stayed there for about 6 months. I loved that apartment, maybe that’s what spoiled me to where I feel I need a big house with lots of rooms.

I also remember that was when I first discovered porn. I had already somewhat known about sex, but a friend got a hold of I think his parents porn and we hid behind the bushes investigating the content. I also remember there were a lot of plum trees and we ate a lot of green plums, or at least I did; that was my favorite at the time.

 

 

1983

In 1983 is when I me Arlene Galven, my 1st true love. In Bad Nauheim, the apartment building were only three story buildings with one stairwell and a total of six apartments. The picture below was the closet picture I could find that fits our housing.

 

We lived in the apartment on the right on the second floor. I don’t remember when it was exactly, but the kids of the family living in the apartment on the first level on the left was playing with matches or a lighter and caught their apartment on fire. So we had to jump from the window in our apartment to escape. It wasn’t that drastic, but it seems so at the time. I thought we were on the third floor, but my father says it was the second.

We tied some sheets together and claimed out the window as far as we could, then jumped into the fireman’s net. We couldn’t go back to the apartment for a few days; so a friend that my father worked with, let us stay with them for a few days. That was when I met Arlene.

 

 

1984

Arline is one of my fondest memories. We had so much fun together, I don’t think we ever had a fight. I remember we played a couple games where she and I was the mommy and daddy, and my brother was our baby. It was either that we were Pterodactyls and we had to protect my brother (our baby) from predictors. At other times we were Sabertooth Tigers and the scenario was the same. Our friend were the predators; so as you can tell, she and I pretty much ruled the roost among our friends.

I remember she was my first kiss; we played hide and go kiss tag, well and you know the rest. We were only like nine and ten, so it was all innocent. We were boyfriend and girlfriend till one of us had to move away, I can’t remember who moved first. Since both our fathers were stationed in the military, it was inevitable.

 

1985

Around March 1985, we came back to the U.S. from Germany and moved to Oklahoma where we stayed for many years. Lawton, Oklahoma; Fort Sill Army Base.

From what I recall, we lived is a mobile home park where I did actually have to walk a four miles to school and four mile back. It was hilly both ways, but I did not have to do it barefoot, though I did have to tread my way through the snow during the winters. No, that was only if I wanted to or if I had missed the buss.

Flower Mound Elementary School; I still remember the first girl I had a crush on there, her name was Barbara. I think she liked me too, because she tormented me! She made fun of me because I was a Karate Kid and every time she say me she would “kiai” me and laughed at me… For to long we were making weird screeching noises at each other like wild animals. One day, one guy told us to quit making our mating calls to each other; I think that was the day of our alliance. We never went out per say, but we ended up teaming up on that guy and others throughout most of elementary school  🙂

 

1986

Sometime while in Oklahoma, we found out that my brother had too many electrical impulses in his brain. Which may also be called Bipolar and/or ADHD. He was very sensitive growing up. It was hard to play with him because he was fine and happy one minute and then very violent the next for no or next to no apparent reason.

1987

In 86 or 87 I ran into Arlene again. Only because I screwed around and failed fifth grade, she was now one year ahead of me in school. She was one of the cool kids and I was one of the dorks 🙁

I was a huge dork! I fallowed her around like a stalker, because I was afraid of her. The same girl that was the love of my life like five years prior. I know, it was puppy love, but still; I was an idiot.

She was friends with a friend of mine and you would have thought that I would have been smart enough to use that as my opening, but nope.

Anyway; that’s OK because not long after that I met Kim Secor, a beautiful red head that would make me forget about most anything.

 

 

1988

 

1989