There isn't much I can say about where I am from that is good.  It was a crappy childhood with a family that could have benchmarked the catagory for "disfunctional".  So... why go into it!  According to my mother, I came along LONG after Dad & Mom (2 words that don't even go in the same sentence in my life!!) were done having kids.  I guess that upset the apple cart a bit and things just got worse from there.  I really don't remember much.  I do remember having a bike and riding in the 4th of July parade a few years in a row...  I do remember being alone a lot... I mean there were other people around, but nobody wanted to bother with the baby. 

I played by myself with my little invisible friends.  Yes, I vaguely remember having invisible friends.  They were bears.  Not teddybears, but real, invisible bears!! One named Honey, and the other I don't remember what I called him, but he was a big, gruff, friendly bear.  [He was the one that protected me and Honey when we played.]  I wandered our 20+ acre yard, I talked to the trees [one which I called Mr. Owl is was still there last tiem i drove down Hilton Ave.], ate walnuts out of the lane, played in the barn, and in general had countless adventures that I would make up as I went along! 

I learned how to read and write before I started school, so I guess abnormal doesn't necessarily mean stupid!  We lived on a Ewe farm (pronounced - 'you' - female sheep - for those who don't know what an Ewe is!), grew a garden in the summer... but I was little.  My job was to 'go play', 'go find something to do', and 'stay out of the house, and 'go---don't come back until supper time'.  Well... as least those are the instructions I remember! 

I spent a LOT of time at the neighbor's house; Don and Carol Conant and their son, Jason.  This is where I first tasted my passion for horses!  To this day I think of Mr. Conant quite often; especially whenever i see the actor Michael Cain.  If I were to choose an actor to play Mr. C, it would most definitaly be Michael Cain.  Not sure why.... something about his eyes and the manerisms in his face when he talks.

One of the very few non-related men in my young life whom I have nothing bad to report.  One of the very few non-related men in my life that did not take advantage of me, hurt me, or disrespect me.  I have nothing but good things to say of Mr. C, and all of my memories of him are kind, loving, affectionate memories.  He treated me like I was his own kid, or maybe a niece or something.  He took time from his busy life, which I knew even then was very stressed, to teach me how to care for his horses (Bob & Togy), and how to put on a saddle the right way and ride them, how clean a stall - he taught me that if I wanted to ride horses, I had to take care of them too! He taught me how to care for his son (who was a baby at the time, though not much younger than I was), he taught me that if I wanted to play with the baby, I had to care for it too!  How to care for their dogs, he taught me that even though I couldn't play with the dogs (Salty & Apollo), I don't remember why, that they were animals, and part of the family, and still needed to be cared for. So really... Mr. C taught me how to CARE about and for others. And he was kind to me, always. 

For all the time I knew him, Mrs. C was away in a hospital, so Mr. C was mostly by himself with the baby. Mrs. C would come home sometimes for visits, like around the holidays, she was good to me too, thought i don't remember her as well. I wasn't old enough to babyset, but I was old enough to play with the baby by myself for a while so Mr. C took care of this or that around the property and around the house.  At least... that's how I remember it.

My parents divorced when I was 9 (I think - - - though up until a few years ago I thought I was younger than that.... my own timeline is messed up!).  Mark & Mary had already gotten married and moved out starting their own families. David, who is my half brother, showed up at one point, was around a while, then gone.  I didn't know the story then, and the story I remember now just doesn't make any sense to me.  David was from dads first marriage, which I didn't know about at that age (why would I), and had his own life elsewhere. But he is my halfbrother. Hmm... ok.

Mother and I moved to Lowell (MI) in the middle of my sixth grade school year, because it was closer to where she worked; at the Amway Plant in Ada.  Dad moved to Grand Rapids (MI), since he worked at - and retired from - General Motors - Fisher Body Plant.  Up until the divorce I went to Alto Elementary school.  I still remember three teachers that really made an impact on me.  Mr. Titcomb was the kindergarten teacher whom I would guess was my first crush & Mr. Hawkins (Hawkeye) who taught 5th grade;  I have always thought highly of them both.  I have gone back a couple of times.  Now the 3rd Mr L'Herault, I remember him because he made us learn to play chess, he was very militant, and he made me set in a desk in the SRA reading storage closet... and he hit me on the head once with a reading workbook when I had snuck out of the closet to sharpen my pencil.  The next year he lost his teaching job for abusive treatment to students and 'inapropriate behavior' towards the female students!  PIG! 

The only friends whopse names I remember are Jeannie Dintamen, Nancy Saboo, Bryan Haywood, The Van Oostan brothers, and Charlie something.  The kids in my neighborhood were Julie Idema, Todd Lyons, Valerie and Mindy Kuyte, Daniel Leasson, and Sandy Greisuinga, but the county line cut our road in half, so several of them went to school in Lowell.  It's weird though, when we moved to Lowell, I don't remember being in school with any of them.  If you (by slim chance) know any of these people, I'd love to get back in touch. Todd was my best friend.  At least that's how I remember it.

After Mom and I moved, I only saw Dad every other weekend.  I did live only 4 trailers away from my Brother and his family, but I didn't see them much either.  He didn't want anything to do with our mother and never has since then.  Strange though how my big, strong, adult, holier-than-thou religious brother didn't find it necessary for him to look after his baby sister at all.  And somehow thought that I should keep the family ties open on my own.... at my sixth grade age.  Yeah okay!

This was 6th grade.... after the divorce... I turned into quite the little chunk... and while attending Runsmen - Riverside school I had a problem on the playground; I did one of those underdog things where you run under the swing and flip yourself over onto the seat on your stomach....  Well.. i was too fat and almost rolled right off the other side.  Luckily i caught my foot in the chain, but my face hit the ground and cut my left eyelid all but off.  I was suspended from school for a week because the injury to my face was too grose and freaked out the kids in school.  Kicked out for bein ugly! Well that's not emotionally damaging!