I was born in Dallas, Texas or so they tell me. Personally, I don't remember. The first thing I do remember is living in a room on the back of my paternal grandparent's house. There were six of us in that one room. There was a bed, an old dresser (no mirror), and one of those old chrome/vinyl kitchen chairs. Mom and Dad slept in the bed with a younger brother and sister. My older sister and I slept on quilts on the floor. The arrangement seemed fine to me but apparently not so for my parents. The problem was that they could not afford a place for all us. They paid a friend of the family a little money to take care of the younger two and my older sister and I became a shared responsibility between my maternal and paternal grandparents. We slept on our quilts at the one and on couches at the other. Again, this seemed like a pretty good arrangement. We would visit Mom and Dad at their East Dallas apartment. The old building, no longer standing, actually had a fire escape. Those may be common in other parts of the country but in Dallas they were rare. There was a lady two floors down that somehow knew when we were coming and would always cook up a batch of cookies for us. Eventually, Mom and Dad had saved sufficient money for a house of our own. It was only about a thousand square feet in size but to us it seemed like a castle. It had two separate bedrooms. Mom and Dad slept in the one and the four of us kids slept in our own bunk bed in the other. Having heard that tigers lived in tall grass, I was sure that the Johnson grass in our back yard that was taller than I was must have at least one in it. Not so.

I did well in school. I played sports. It was in High School that I realized that we were "poor". I am one of those kids that rode the bus because we could not afford a car, The dates I did go on had to be "creative." Though I've had some success, I can say that this sense of being "less than" has been a struggle throughout my life. It keeps you from taking chances or reaching "too high". It also tells you to enjoy (spend) all the money you have because you may never get it again. I have a nice house, cars, and trimmings. I also have dwindling funds. Health keeps from doing what I did before but being a simple man, I know the solution is simply that I have to generate income. This web endeavor, along with others I will share, is my attempt to do so. If it works, I will share it.