| I was born in Kansas City Mo. on March
14, 1950. Somewhere about six months old I was adopted and taken to be
raised in a middle class family in Gary, Indiana. My adopted father was a
custom home builder and designer. My adopted mother was a school teacher
that chose to stay at home and help my father with the business and to
raise the kids. Besides myself, there were two other children. All three
of us were adopted. My sister, Patti (or Trish as she is now called), and
my brother, Gary. My sis was adopted first and I was second. So that
leaves Gary to have been added to the family last. I don't know the
particulars on my sisters adoption, because that happened before I was
around and we never have discussed that. But I do remember Gary coming to
live with us. We are spaced fairly evenly in age and I am the youngest of
the brood. My sister being the oldest. |
| My childhood, the best I can recall was a
good one. But at the time I didn't think so. It seemed as if my father had
adopted the boys to be his work force. Now, in retrospect, I see he was
trying to teach us the business he was in. |
| I think this was the start of my
rebellion to society. I wasn't happy, I thought! Actually, now I look back
and I had absolutely no reason to be unhappy! But none the less I
rebelled.
I had started drinking and smoking pot in my sophomore year of high
school. This is also about the time I started to ride motorcycles. My
father would never let me own one, so, I rode whoever's bike that would
loan me one. Dropping out of High School in the middle of my senior year and
joining the Marine Corps. That was December of 1967. I spent two years in
the Corps and I am forever grateful for the training I received there. But
at the time...I rebelled! I had continued to smoke pot and drink, but now
I was into the "other" drugs, hallucinogens mostly. To make a
long story a little shorter, I received a BAD CONDUCT DISCHARGE from the
Marine Corps in January of 1970. This was the ticket I was looking for!
Now I was free...free at last, to run rampid! I went to Billings, Montana
and for the next three years ran amuck amongst the cowboys and hippies
there. I nearly got into some serious trouble there and called dear 'ole
dad for assistance! He sent me a plane ticket home and home I went. |
| Well...I don't want to go into an
exceptionally long story, but my drinking and drugging continued until I
had finally reached a point where I was setting on the edge of my bed with
a gun to my head, gonna end it all. I couldn't go on rebelling any longer!
I had to finally give up! Alcohol had
defeated me! I was admitted into the Care Unit in
Michigan City, Indiana on February 17, 1983 and haven't seen fit to take
another drug (Un-prescribed) or drink since. |
| I have to give credit to My Higher Power
and to Alcoholics Anonymous for my sobriety. Without the program and the
people in it, I would most certainly drink again. And for this Alcoholic,
that would be insanity! Ya see, my HP has a morbid sense of humor...he
wouldn't let me die. I would have to live with the fact that I was still
and always will be a drunk...just tryin to get sober! |
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