Musing,Daily or when ever: My Family/Me

I like too joke and say that "My brother was an only Child" But as we all know there is always a nugget of Truth in any Depreciating joke. I am the Oldest by 9 years...

My Grandparents on both sides came from Europe (old country's) My Fathers side from Scotland and my Mothers from Hungary...

My mother was 9 years older than my father...Besides homemaker she was a Beautician/Manicurist...

My father started out in the US.Navy WWII and Korea wounded twice..worked as a Draftsman and Tool Design...also Tool Maker...He received his H.S. Diploma the same year I received mine 1965...LOL

He went on in night school to get his Degree in Mechanical Engineering...He passed away in his 50's...

too young...My Mother Passed away about 2 years later...

Early photo 1966 younger brother, me and our Mother...

Sorry to say that I have no photo's of my Father...

House I grew up in during High School

But Being...The...

            That I am and we all know it's about me...Why else would I be writing a Blog...

I believe that I still have a good memory of my early years of growing up...I remember that I liked to be out side a lot away from Adults...I got into trouble as kids do but nothing crazy...Growing up with two girl cousins that lived upstairs...one a little older and one a little younger. We went too a Catholic Grammar School together that was just down the street...not much chance of getting into trouble...I was hanging around with guys that were 3 to 4 years older than me...Just a lack of boys(one my mortal enemy) my age in the near neighborhood...My enemy would beat me up about once a week if he could catch me, then my father would punish me for running or getting beat up...till I could not take it any more and stood my ground and beat up the bully...That almost turned into a fight between our fathers...

Back to my father again, he had an interesting way of punishment (I don't remember him hitting me back then as did a lot of fathers) No my father used Mental Control with a little Physical Pain....We had a Black and White TV (yea we did) any way he would have me kneel upright facing him with my back to the TV...I could Hear it but not see It...and my favorite programs were on...and wile this was going on we would discuss why I was being punished...and no sitting back on my heals, upright until he thought I learned my lesson...Of course as I got older things changed....One of his favorites as I got bigger was when I would walk by or he would pass me...would be a punch to the arm or the slap to the back of the head...And my reaction was 'why did you hit me'...And he would Say "For what you did, that you don't think I know about" Kind of kept me walking the straight and narrow...

                   I started at a public inner city High School for my Freshman year; a little culture shock from a Catholic Grammar School....Not to bad I already knew some of the kids from public schools in the neighborhood....In my Sophomore year we moved out of the city to the Suburbs where I really got hit with culture shock...LOL...inner-city to upper middle class and above...Rarefied Air...where I was made to feel like the minority lower class Catholic white boy...but I did consider having my last name changed and adding a 'Stine or 'Sterne' even 'witz'...It was not that bad, but it did cut down on the girls I could date...Back then you were labeled by who or group you associated with the Jocks or even the car shop guys or the new hippie culture  that was starting in the early 60's...I more or less did not fit in with any group...but I did find that I was not alone even back then...there were quite a few of us that were not part of...we had a loose relationship, most of were the 'minorities'....We (not as a group) were invited to party's not directly but more of a friend of a friend type invite...and the "Old Blind Date" do you have a friend for my friend deal...

I Married one of My Blind Dates, in 1967 wile I was in the Navy; We had two children a boy and a girl...
In 1970, I got out of the Navy and went to work for the telephone Co. as an Inside repairman working inside the tel-co building on the frame, in the switch room then on the test board...Till 1973...
We Divorced in 1973, I went back into the Navy (My Navy) Page...
My Daughter complained that I did not put up any Photos of Her and Her Brother...Well I did not have permission...but now She said that she does not care..

                                                              So Here's Dana....

She is Still my Baby....

In 1974, I met my second wife; I left the Navy in 1976 and Married her in 1977...We had one child a boy in1988..In 1992 God saw fit to take her from me...She was not only my Wife she was my 'Best Friend'...This is where my life, as I knew it ENDED also...

This is the way I want to Remember Her...

I came to Miami in 1994. I started my recovery wile I was still liveing on the street. Living behind the Hard Rock Cafe @ Bay-side Mkt. Place.

Pan handling and eating food samples from the food court.

Bayside is a Big Tourist Draw....

But I had started going to meetings @ the Coral Room. I would walk the 6 miles to the Coral room about a 2hr. walk. Becaus I wanted what they had there. I did not want to Die on the Street or under a bridge....

For all of Miami's Glitz and Glamour...

Within a few Blocks, there are Homeless and Slums...

Within a few weeks I was liveing on a boat on the Miami river. Earning my keep by doing work on the boat.

A few months later I moved to a larger vessel to live and work also to get payed 4 my work.

In 1997, I started to work 4 the VA Hosp. and got my own Apt. Worked there for 2 yrs. Then various jobs till I started having problems with my elbows. As they Diagnosed Tennis Elbow of both Left and Right Elbows..

I had to have Two operations on the Right one the last time they removed the Bursar and shift the Nerve...My Left Elbow they Damaged the Nerve with a Needle when they tried to drain it...

I became homeless again and lived @ the Salvation Army till the VA OSAC helped me get into an Adult liveing facility. I got my disability...I still have some Pain, now and then it Infects if I bump or twist the Right Elbow...My Left that has the Nerve Damage has made the small and ring fingers of my Left Hand numb like when you have fallen asleep on your arm...except it's all the time.

And now I live in an Apt. in the Little River Area....