CHAPTER 1: HOW (OR WHY?) IT STARTED

I guess it really started sometime in late November, 1973 at a Christmas party hosted by a mutual friend of the family. My Mother was there and so was my Dad and, well, they both had too much to drink and one thing led to another because on August 1, 1974, I was born. I was born at the Maple Creek Union Hospital in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan - a small town of about 2500 people located in the SouthWest corner of Saskatchewan. Life growing up was vary, vary abnormal because I had a stepfather who was an alcoholic and loved to "turn the house into a war zone without warning". On the other hand - and I'll talk about it later - my biological Father was a "hard core" heroin addict, so I don't know who was better to live with. I grew up on a Ranch seven miles South of Maple Creek. I was the youngest of 7 kids, six Boys and one Girl. Life on the Ranch was fun, I had all the space I wanted to wander, and wander I did. We had Cows, Chickens, Horses and Dogs. There is one Dog I'll never forget. His name was "Socks". Now I don't know what it was, but this Dog must have thought that it was his duty to protect me or something because every night without fail, when it was time for me to go to bed, Mom would come back to tuck me in and there behind her was Socks. Mom would tuck me in, and this Dog would lay with me until he was sure I was asleep, then he would go to bed. Even if Mom or my Step-Father called him, he wouldn't come until he was sure I was sleeping. If I was in Peoples way and they couldn't see me, Socks would Bark to let them know "little people" were around.