didn’t spend much time with my uncle because he lived far away. It is kind of scary to think you can have hereditary behavior from relatives you never really knew. It’s not a learned behavior, but somehow it has gotten passed down. I don’t know what my father thought of me. Looking back at his teachings, I see he was tailoring his parenting to me. Instead of trying to get the child to conform to the parent, my father met me where I was and used what I would understand to help to make me into the person he wanted me to be. What I remember about my childhood was a great deal of freedom and responsibility. Sunday mornings I was allowed to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and watch The Muppet Show by myself. I would then go back to bed and wake back up a few hours later to get ready for church. I was doing this before I even started school. It was not considered sneaking out of bed or doing something forbidden. They helped me to set my alarm clock. I don’t know why my parents let me do this. Maybe they saw no harm in it. Looking back on it, I realize now that even before I went to school, I learned how to tell time and the value of being able to get up for something. These are skills people need in life when they have a job or other responsibilities they have to get up for. Since we didn’t have cable, I had to turn the antenna from the northeastern direction to the southwestern direction. I was learning geographical relationships between my town and the bigger cities in the state as well as things like north, south, east, and west. My father used my interests to help to teach me life skills and to give me an education. In exchange, I was given a certain amount of freedom to explore and discover the world around me without a fear of getting in trouble. I have always had a hard time sleeping. I would lie in bed for a couple of hours and not fall asleep. After the local news would end, my parents would watch Leave It to Beaver. I would either watch it with them, or watch it from the hallway. They knew I was doing it and knew that I had to get up in the morning to go to school. They never acted like this was something I shouldn’t be doing. Maybe they were sharing a part of their own childhood with me or giving me an example of child that could get in trouble in every episode and still come to his parents for help. As I look back at all of the lessons that my father taught me, I realize that he taught me through stories, riddles, challenging my thinking, and using things that I enjoyed doing. I was special to my parents because I was a difficult pregnancy, but that didn’t mean the rest of the world should think that I am special or treat me special. There is a value to caring about another person, especially when we put them ahead of ourselves and our problem. Life will present you with problems. You can lament this fact, or you can accept them as the particular circumstances you have been given in life and look for ways to overcome them. There have been many times since my father’s death I have missed going to him for advice. It took me until I was an adult to realize that he imparted me with not only all of the wisdom I would ever need, but he gave me the philosophies and skills to solve all of the problems I would ever have. The best teachers are those that change your life without you ever noticing they were educating you. My father was this kind of man.
Chapter Two As Cruel as School Children My childhood was a happy one. My pre-school days were spent with Christine. We played together every day. It was then that I started to love her. I admit that it was a childish love, but it was fun. I remember playing house a lot in those early days. It was always her choice. I didn't care. All I wanted was to spend time with her. ~~~ Jack and I had two very different childhoods. I think we were both jealous of each other and wanted what the other one had. I was what some have called a