These years are probably the most unexciting part of my life but most definitively sets the bases of the rest of my years in motion. I can quickly sum it up as having a fairly typical type of struggles that a middle class family in need of a public image would have. By public image, I mean my father is a preacher so a good deal of our lives is based on image. My mother was probably a little too emotional while my Father was not! I really don't want to get into my perception of my parents or even other people as I want to mainly deal with my approach to these relationships.
Like I mentioned in my previous blog I was an emotionally spoiled teachers pet. I spoke baby talk way too long and I felt like fuzzy rainbows were the guardians of life. I love my mom and never will stop, to the point where I remember punching my dad's gonads for teasing my mother one day. My parents are horrible for one another but at this time with me being so young I could not see this.
I was born in West Texas, but moved to Central Texas before my memory kicked in. I grew up with 2 older sisters by 4 and 3 years. We always had a dog, and the first one I remember was Buster. I really don't remember much of him, but I remember that he looked blue to me. I also remember the day he died; my mother accidentally ran him over and she cried for hours. Then we got a Pomeranian named Smokey. I was still too young to remember much of him, although he was fuzzy and little and liked to jump around a lot. My Dad ran him over with a school bus that he drove for a year.
I used to wake up to the sound of a rooster that my neighbors across the street had. I ask my Dad if he remembered these roosters and he said it drove him nuts, but I loved waking up to the sound of a rooster. Sometimes the baby chickens would find their way over to our house and we would pick them up and play with them in the house. Smokey even enjoyed doing this!
I lived in a parsonage during this time and have a lot of my life, so the Church was always right next to me. Though I was much too young to really understand what a Church was, I just knew people showed up once a week. It was boring to sit there, but I did wonder why so many people came to hear my dad stand up front speaking about things.
When I started school, I was really kinda used to the groups of people growing up in the church. However, I was used to being the center of attention when adults picked a kid they tend to pay more attention to the preachers kid then they do to another child. I just came to school smiling and ready to learn. I made friends pretty easily and always wanted to include everyone from the so-called weird kids, to even the mean kids. I thought if I was nice to them that they would see no reason to act so harshly towards people. Never thought kindness could be perceived as a weakness.
After 2 years in Central Texas School, we moved to Missouri. Just to another church this time, with a graveyard on the other side of the church. We got a Chihuahua that was mine. His name was Igulia, or however you spell it. 'Eagle' in Spanish! He was a pure white dog that ran everywhere, and man he ran fast and loved it. His best friend was our other dog named Bogey. I have no idea what kind of dog he was, but he was huge! Bogey was so lazy that he would actually be laying down when he ate his food, he simply flopped his head in the bowl tilting it and just started eating like that.
My oldest sister had a couple hamsters named chipper and putter (get the animal naming pattern of this time, our dad was a golfer). My Chihuahua got too close to the hamsters and killed one of them though. She still reminds me to this very day! We got some rabbits too. First one was Stampy and the second one was Fuzzy. Stampy broke his back jumping out of my oldest sisters hands one day. I still remind her of this! Our other sister was a sport person even more than me, the boy! Though I'm not really a sport person I like playing here and there but I'm not like grunting and slapping people's asses while hooting and hollering.
After two years in Missouri we went to East Texas. This time not in a parsonage my dad got a housing allowance to get a house. A couple of kids that lived across the street told us that no couple has ever lived in that house without getting a divorce. That freaked my spoiled ass out, but I didn't believe it. Two years later, my parents divorced and we moved back to West Texas. Not to say I think the house is what did it but that is kinda odd. lol!
We did get some German Shepherds at this house. First its was Baylor, he was my dad's dog. He looked like a bear and since my dad graduated at Baylor University, whose mascot is a bear, he named the dog Baylor. This dog was just smart! He could untie ropes without chewing through them and open doors and windows. I even learned that he was a natural at football getting in stance and waiting for the word hut! How he learned that, I will never know.
Daffinee was our next German Shepard. She was blonde and I remember her being very sweet. She got shot hanging out at our neighbors house one day by some punk that lived past the woods behind us. He said he thought it was our neighbor's dog. We tried getting his guns taken away for being irresponsible with them, but the court ruled against it. Daffinee lost that leg where she was shot, but her life was spared and her spirit was great.
After Daffinee got shot, we got Shiloh. She looked a lot like Baylor, but much more feminine. Now with 3 German Shepherds, we had a house full. Luckily we did have a huge gated front yard. When the divorce kicked in, we had to get rid of all 3. I do believe that they all ended up being together at some guys farm, but who knows!
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