Childhood-Birth to 12 years:
I was born in a tiny town in Ontario called Red Lake, most people don't know where it is and when ever I'm ask I say "Go North of Thunder Bay until you run out of road." My parents were an odd couple to say the least. My Dad (G) was and is a hippie and my Mom (E) is a independent strong woman. When they meet G was 30 and E was 16 though they both didn't know how old each other were. E was very mature for her age and already living on her own and working full time and G has always looked younger that he is/was. E had left home when she was 16 due to a horrible childhood. How they meet is an interesting story. G is from Australia and was backpacking across Europe when he meet a couple of Canadian chicks they told that he should go to Canada and when he got there he should look them up. So he did, he went to Canada. I don't know if he ever met up with those girls again, but I do know that he walk into the dinner where E was working and that's how they meet. They became friends, now G did not know how old E was and how he found out was it was E b-day and he was talking with her and a friend of E's about how old she was turning. It went kinda like this G: "So E, what your turn like 20 something?" E: "No G I'm turning 17." G: "Your kidding! Right!?" E: "Nope here's my ID to prove it." G: "Well crap! You do know that I'm 30 right?" E: "NO!! You're kidding!! Right!?" G: "Nope here MY ID to prove it!". All while E's friend is laughing her ass off, I'm sure neither of my parents thought it was funny at the time. Funny as heck now though. Anyways they ended up getting married shortly there after and having me. My Mom was 18 when I was born. There is also a funny story about when my Mom and Dad went to Australia so that E could meet G's family. They we in the airport about to get on the plane to Oz and E called her Mom (M) (my grandmom). It went something like this: E: "Hi Mom, thought I would call and let you know that I'm going to Australia for a bit." M: "Oh really?" E: "Yep, and btw I got married." M: "OH! Really!!?" E: "Yep and btw I'm also pregnant!" click. My step grand pa still hasn't forgiven E for that conversation. To say M was pissed would be an understatement.
Anyways must get back on track. So there I was a happy healthy newborn of 6 lbs 6 oz. Apparently I was such a mellow baby that my parents decided to have another baby just 4 months after I was born. So my Mom got pregnant with my sister (K). Now it wasn't smooth sailing after that. I got really sick when I was 8 moths old, so sick in fact that I ended up in Hospital for 10 months, I celebrated my 1st b-day in hospital. I was so sick that my immune system shut down and I ended up in isolation. The Dr.'s weren't sure what was up, but they though I may had the 'boy in the bubble' disease and if I had it more than likely that the baby my Mom was 7 months pregnant with had it to since it was genetic. I can't imagine what that would have been like for my Mom. Anyways the Dr.'s did eventually figure out what was wrong with me and I got better.
So shortly after my sister was born my parents decided to move to Vancouver. So they packed up and move cross country with 2 small children, again not sure how they managed. Shortly after they got here they ended up getting divorced. My parents marriage lasted a whole 3 years. They did stay friends and shared custody of myself and my sister. They had this great idea so that they would get equal time with us kids. They decided to split custody of us and that we would live with one parent for 2 years and see the other on weekends and after 2 years switch. So between that and the fact both my parents rented places I spent my childhood living out of a suitcase or at least that's what it felt like. Other than that my childhood was fairly uneventfully. I did a lot of camping a child, some of my best and fav memories are of camping trips. Went to Oz when I was 5, I just remember it. We drove cross country to Air's Rock in a VW Westfaila. I remember the super fine red dust, it got every where, I still remember what it tasted like. Lived in Mexico City when I was 6 with my Dad. I remember having to choke down a lot of vitamins to stay healthy and every time we went out the locals petting my head and calling me 'angel', my hair had sun bleached white blonde. I remember the trip to Disneyland when I was 7. We drove down in our converted GM van, all of us. My Dad, my step Mom (P), myself, my sister and the dog. I was an interesting trip, I remember my Dad speeding and getting pulled over by the California police and the dog being sprayed by a skunk at one of the stops. When I was 10 I got to go to Expo '86 with my Mom, got to see some back stage stuff to because my Mom knew people. Shortly after that my Dad decided to move back to Oz and since I was living with him at the time I had to move too. It was very traumatic at the time, when had to get rid out our dog and decide what we were packing to take on the plane and what was going in the shipping container. We could only bring so much with us so we had to get rid of a lot and that included most of my toys, very upsetting to a 10 year old. So we moved to Oz, spent 1.5 years there I learned how to ride a bike, meet my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins and saw some amazing things while there. After the 1.5 years it was my Mom's turn to have us live with her so we moved back to Vancouver. My Dad stayed in Oz and has been there since. Life went on as perusal until I was 12 and my Mom decided to move to North Van due to a job. We had been living in Richmond up until then and that where I spent the majority of my childhood. So we moved and that wraps up the 1st part of my life so far. Next installment the teen years 13-18. Stay tuned.
To be continued...
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