Memories II: Reliving

So story my life. I don’t know if there were any events that brought us closer as a family if anything time apart from each other made the family work a lot better. Never wear the travel together bond together type of family as it were.

And because of that when it comes to cousins, aunts and uncles early didn’t learn about many of them till later in life. I had two cousins with an Uncle Bill. And they have Missy. They divorce Missy passed away. JD was there boy kid he committed suicide Bridget disappeared and Alyssa was always my my mother’s favorites. And then my aunt Charlene had three kids Vicki, Eric and David and my head. They were all one. Like they were all referred to as Vicki, Eric and David and I really didn’t know them in life. Yeah, my mother was never big on family gatherings. So there wasn’t much of that.

My first big disappointment was definitely the whole baseball, wanting to try out for baseball thing and being told I couldn’t. Again I think that affects your life when you’re told you can’t do something. I would rather try and not make it than just playing be told that couldn’t do anything can’t do that one.

So when I was young, my favorite things to do was just playing the yard. catch insects be there with my cats. It definitely made me feel like I had my freedom and that was a big deal to me whether I was playing in the water in the stream or not exploring outside or riding my bike just being outside meant total freedom.

And I think that’s something that I carry over as an adult. I don’t take to the confined space very well. But I remember at one point writing the mayor of Harrisburg at the time, Stephen Reed, because I had been working inside for so long I just want to work outside. I wanted a job within city island so I became an answer. My letter became one of the city interns didn’t last for too. Long.

I burned the clutch out or a gator. And I remember my boss said, Gentlemen, that’s what he said. And I ended up leaving. I don’t know I must last five or 10 weeks. Remember the other workers the real full time workers complained about OSHA I was had to use the weed the weed whip and go in different areas and do that and then move the Gator and the other machines around I don’t really think I was particularly good at that job but it was nice being outside and I think ultimately my freedom was important to me island after writing the mayor that was a that was important.

So another word associate So when I hear the word accident I think instantly it was worry that I already told where my car and a tractor trailer met and the results were that great on a bridge ended up in In the hospital yeah that was on the Harvey Taylor bridge on inner city three you Harrisburg Pennsylvania so that was to accent and it always comes down to auto accident. That’s just the way it works.

A song that brings back a strong memory for me would definitely be hero and we talked about that with the word association with Hiro, the Mariah Carey song. And it just reminds me of a lot of time in my life and I heard the song on the radio and it was so inspiring and it lifted me up. And I think it did did that For a lot of people.

If I could relive one memory just for fun, it would be the first time in New York City. As I walked around and I saw the top buildings I breathed in the air tasted hot dogs. That was huge. I heard the sounds of the city I saw the huge towers, it tastes to the hot dogs smell the city air. And touch I could just, you know, I don’t think I touch things because it was New York City. But it was definitely a thing. It was definitely a thing.

The best gift I think I ever received was the Atari in 1980. close second would be the Nintendo Entertainment System, which was a birthday gift, where I played Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers non stop. So you have video games, video games were big thing.

I think the most impactful thing wasn’t necessarily a gift. But it was the apple two computer. So when it came to me and computing, I had the Timex Sinclair 1000, the TI 99 for a pastime for my sister. And then the apple two was really the big one for me, the apple to see slash Apple to E, because those computers were the ones that really taught me how computers worked.

Taking programs from magazines during low resolution graphics during high resolution graphics, gameplay, copying desks, backing up your data, all of those lessons were important, as well as the cost of software. So I think you know, between the Atari, the Nintendo and the computers, which are all related items, I think those were the most important gifts to me.

Ah, so I hear the word money, I think of my father because he couldn’t control money. We always had nice things because of money. We had a big house, we had a video camera, we had big televisions. We rented movies all the time. We copied movies all the time. We could buy the 12 pack of extra high grade tapes. Not many people could do that. I can say growing up, we probably didn’t want for very much. Because my father spent money a lot. I don’t think he really saved money, as it were. But he definitely spent it. No question. None at all.

So top 10 role models growing up. I don’t think we’ll make it to 10. I think Star Trek’s Mr. Spock was a big deal to me, because he could control his emotions. And I think with all the trauma that I’ve been through, that was a very important thing to me.

I think I think it tells him characters in particular. Bill Bixby and the Incredible Hulk, Jack Klugman and Quincy Michael Landon in Little House in the prairie and Highway to Heaven. All these characters are people that were trying to do. Do good things do the right thing. Trying to correct wrongs.

Certainly Sam Beckett and quantum leap. Definitely someone I looked up to, as well as superheroes like Superman, Spider Man, other Star Trek characters like Captain Kirk. I think it always will then fictional characters for me real people. And cultural figures just didn’t do it. But I admired people that would fight for what they believed in. I think that was a that’s a very important trait.

So something that was supposed to be joyful, and turned out badly, that would probably be my entire childhood. I think I’d always been jealous of other people’s childhoods, other people that got to play in tree houses of the people that got to go out. Other kids that just got to do XYZ.

My mother was always over protective and never ever found out why. It should have never been that way because I had an older sister so she should have broken them of that but somehow she didn’t But yeah, I think my entire childhood was a time that was joyful. That turned out to be badly.

I remember my mother had a temper. And it could also happen anytime I had to have run those 90 Navy slippers and men did those thing. There’s no friction of you running as they were hitting you. If you stayed in one place, it was a little bit better, but then they could get lock on you. If you moved you might get away but if not, friction made it just worse.

Books played a big role in my childhood. Weekly Reader books I remember because of my parents affluence. I always had like one of the largest book orders I could order two or three versions of the same book. Because the collector emerging in me but whether it was the troll book club, or whether it was the Weekly Reader summer books, whether it was trips to the Waldenbooks or the B Dalton’s to get Doctor Who book or Star Trek book.

I read a lot of books one summer as I was discovering Doctor Who I must have read, like at least half the Doctor Who novels out there. They weren’t that expensive at the time. I could go the mall like a buy one I could bring it home.

First one I remember reading was Dr. Go in the Cybermen, which was an adaption of the moon base. Remember reading the smugglers, the war machines. Those are some they got locally. A friend of mine in Ohio, John Rhenish, he used to send a whole bunch to me.

So yeah, that was a neat guy passed away from juvenile diabetes shortly after 911. I visited him a few times in Ohio and he came to Pennsylvania met him through the Star Trek fan club I think I mentioned was the four vice buying Star Trek figures from him. And then he would extend me credit you would go bookstore he actually helped keep track of what Doctor Who books I had, so that I could get more than what I could get my weekly be Dalton are watering rotten because I couldn’t go to use bookstores on my own.

I see young, but he did use bookstores and he would always pick them up. In fact, I think what’s interesting to me was I was 14 or 15. At the time, he was like 30 something or late 20s or something. I haven’t fulfilled that role for anybody.

They say you, you you you become what you needed. I definitely need someone like that. But I don’t know I’ve done a lot of mentoring of young people, but they’ve always been different than me. They’ve always been, you know, in the hood, inner city kids don’t have that kind of, you know, sci fi nerd gene.

Whereas I had a few people in my life that had that sci fi nerd gene. And that was interesting. When I think about it. You know, I had John in Ohio, and they had a zero room viewers group, which was the doctor who viewing group with Nolan Spencer, John Martin, John Doe bling. Rick Smyers.

The great guys that met in Harrisburg, older than me, went on trips together to the doctor who conventions and shows. And there was a guy named Steve Wilson and his girlfriend, Rosie. Rosie, I think was in a wheelchair or reasonably close to it. Steve was very heavy set. He had a beta VCR and always had the great stuff on beta.

And he would do put over to VHS collected all kinds of the same type of sci fi stuff I did. He would come over to the house. My mother always like Steve taught me a lot about computers as well.

And then I think the last one was Mark and Beth livering. House in Hershey met them again toy training. He used to go to their house every Saturday do a political rant certain nights of the week. I put my daughter over to meet them. And then they just decided they didn’t want to talk to me anymore.

And his wife said that mark would explain, Beth said that mark would explain, but Mark never did. So I just let that let that go. It’s one of the very few relationships in my life that I just let go.

They’re great. They’re supportive. They sent money when I needed it. They said, supported me when I did overseas missions supported me when I had my daughter, all that stuff, but something changed somewhere. And I think I’ve actually been afraid to ask why?

Because I haven’t wanted to know what could have been so bad. That just the phone calls stop to get together stopped. It used to be like every Saturday. And then suddenly, you know, even after I move, we talked every week. But then it stopped. And I don’t I don’t know what happened there at all.

So my childhood was very high tech, we had VCRs TVs. We had cables that could do from one to the other between rooms. Now when you connect them by coax before you connect to them by RCA cables and a copy card box, we had a VHS video camera which almost no one had like a full sizer.

We had the Atari we had the Nintendo I had a VCR in my room grant it was a single speed tank. Color TV in my room eventually black and white for longest time. actually still have my first black and white TV but it’s in pieces because it got dropped during my last move.

I held Vaughn do it for years ya know, my, my childhood was very, very high tech had Transformers as toys, which were, of course, you know, they were puzzles, but they were kind of high tech looking puzzles.

We had a bay house alarm, home security because my uncle had a home security company. So we naturally had a home security system, which was a pretty big deal. Most people didn’t have that.

We had road riding lawn mowers again, you could consider that high tech as well. We had a pool with the palm all of that. So when I was a child, I was given responsibility to mow the lawn given responsibility to vacuum the floors with the floor tashman on the vacuum cleaner.

We had 90 Nice canister cleaner. I also had to do the kitty litter I always hate the smell of the kitty litter in the basement but that was my job but yeah the mowing the lawn so I was able to earn money money by comic books that was good.

Learn responsibility very early first job was at 16 at Boardwalk fries when they got my driver’s license because I was handed everything I had to get job and I had to work. So responsibility was drilled into me very very, very early on.

Giving the others was interesting. So when I I was always slam for being selfish but I have my little envelope. I grew up Lutheran, so giving was a thing and I’m a little envelope where I put my 25 or 50 cents in for Sunday offering.

As a child I again I got criticized for that. It wasn’t something you know, my mother just always let me be but my father criticized me for that.

I think again, recounting back to the first service day that I did with ti craft. I went to New York City went to the Bowery street mission. My friend Don Shin went and we did a day together.

And then going to Zambia, twice Kenya, twice South Africa once and then doing the inner city stuff with the kids was huge. I think that was that was a really important deal with the kids and that’s when I really learned to give to others.

So I had moved down to Nashville, and I a friend of mine, Dr. Bro Miller helped me to connect with a pastor named David spring because I didn’t want to go to Bethel Brentwood I didn’t want something like Morningstar New York I didn’t want more of the same.

So I was told church at the Globe run by Dave spring was different and that would work for me. It had what they called you to work you to worship like you to the rock or but as the story is, David tell it is rice had a move into East Nashville rice Brooks the scene Your pastor of Bethel world outreach church.

And he had this big pink house with a fence. And these kids would jump over the fence and jump on his trampoline, trampoline in the backyard. And then they would run away when he got home.

So eventually he, he tried to stop the kids and he said, Hey, wait, I want to talk to you. So you got to know the kids and then they started showing up hungry. So Dave would feed them and they solely trusted Dave but it was a lot for him and his wife Chris.

Dee and their kids Tyler and a newborn Isaac to handle as a family and a married couple. So I moved in. I moved from Hendersonville over Lake, to 898 sharp Avenue which was a little shack I called it a shack was a 600 square foot shack.

It had a bedroom, a kitchen and a living room. And then a little room we could use as a computer lab. So I set up a computer lab I set up a gym I’m a home gym, CEP and air hockey table sub TV area tutoring area and it became an open home for kids.

And I could be open 24/7 Whereas Dave, he needed family time so it was a good it was a good complement and help met some meet some of the knees.

There was a time when one of the kids and Jonathan knee had taken to the hospital. And I took him to the hospital. I stayed with him overnight. I had a consent form that allowed me Need to get him medical care and he had some heart issues.

But my home was open 24/7 And eventually I upgraded I moved across the street from Dave to 1048 West Greenwood, which no longer exists. 1048 risk Greenwood was a five bedroom home.

So we were able to do so much more. The computer lab was that made for the kids was so much bigger. We had washer, dryer, all of that. And that was kind of the biggest season of that because I was helping run the movie company at the same time.

But that was definitely a time in my life where I felt, especially in terms of my giving to others. I was firing on all four cylinders because the movie company was a nonprofit If we were running into community outreach in the church and having a five bedroom home, we could just do so much more.

Unfortunately the retaining wall had some issues and that’s just not something you can fix. Eventually. The owner Dorothy fixe sold to a she Hill Realty, and the home was part of a three way swap to get a Publix in there.

But because of zoning, they couldn’t shuffle around the payday loan place because once they moved it, they couldn’t open it back up again. They apparently they were grandfathered in.

So of That house eventually just got demolished. I think there’s an empty spot there. Cell phone parking lot or something not like the airport but just like the parking electro cell phone place.

But that was that was that was giving of my time. And then when the movie company collapsed, the outreach collapse, the church collapsed. I’m made one final move to 1438 Pennock Avenue and finished my assignment with the kids as I brought in my daughter.

I made sure to get one of them been off to the military one of them to why build that was Anthony John The thing was well on his way somewhere, Josh was well on his way somewhere.

And then my daughter came in so I was able to get all the boys off in, you know, as well as I could and then focus on my daughter, which is probably the biggest.

Giving them my time, energy, effort and resources that could do because I was a single person I had the resources of a single person and just me.

But definitely that changed things. to change things incredibly and that’s how I really learned about giving to others

and I think that’s where we’ll stop for tonight.