I have an unusual background. We were poor but living in a house. I was a twin born in 1961[very premature) but my brother died after a month. That sent my alcoholic father into a tailspin because it brought back emotions from a previous marriage where he had lost a child. In both cases, he started drinking and couldn’t keep a job.

We bounced from place to place, each one cheaper and worse than the other. We lived for 6 months in a house with no utilities other than water. My mom cooked on one of those old Coleman stoves you had to pump the pressure up. We even lost that house, but in retrospect, maybe we were squatting in it. We ended up in the St Louis getto. I was 8 by then and we  lived an old 4 story house but the top 3 floors were unlivable but to an 8 year old, it was a playground.

But it was a rough place. I saw a guy get shot. The old man behind us died but no one knew for a long time and his dog was eating his body. I was the only white boy in my school. This was 1968 & 69 so think about what was going on in the US then as far as race relations and imagine being the only white boy. I learned how to fight, run and talk my way out of trouble. I went to school with the Spinks brothers, the boxers out of St Louis. I got beat up by a big kid named Leon and I like to think at least I got beat up by the guy who beat Mohammed Ali. Probably wasn’t but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Then, my mom got sick and we took turns staying home from home from school. One day, she was looking right at me and died. I was 9 then. When people say the light goes out of someone’s eyes, I know exactly what they mean. I like to say after that, the only smart thing my dad did was realize he couldn’t possibly keep it together and he gave us four kids to my mom’s older sisters.

So we moved into a decent but small five room house in the Dutch working class neighborhood of South St Louis,( the St Louis equivalent of Boston’s Southie neighborhood) with two ladies who at that point were widows in their 60’s. It’s amazing  that they took us in and basically sacrificed the rest of their lives to give us a chance.

That’s enough for now but all that before I was 9.

It would interesting to hear very brief highlights from others.

And yes Jog, those women saved my life, in every way possible a life could be saved …..to quote a movie. (Bonus points if you know which one.)

The Titanic movie.