A special thanks to Ed for editing this chapter.

My dad came home and told us that his job has changed. Dad was involved in therapy and research. Now he is going to be trying to get patients back into society. He is going to find them jobs and places to live. He said that this is part of a shift in the mental health field to try to get people out of institutions and make them useful members of the community.

Dad is a doer. He is good at getting things done. He is going to have to drive a half an hour each way to get to work now because there aren't any jobs in Caro for the patients. He has to drive up to Saginaw. He always has his feet on the ground.

Mom is a dreamer. She also has lots of friends. Almost every day she teaches me something. Sometimes I don't understand what she is trying to teach me. She told me that some people wear a veil and you need to be careful how you unveil yourself to someone or you can cause damage to them. She also says that too much of a good thing is bad and that we need to have moderation in all things. Every day Mom has something new for me to learn. I think Mom has her head in the clouds. Dad is a realist and Mom is so abstract. With my dad everything is black and white. Mom on the other hand has lots of grays.

At school today we all went to lunch. After eating, I went back to the classroom. No one was there. I went in the teacher's desk drawer and found some change. I took it and went back to the cafeteria and bought some ice cream.

Dad came home and told us that he is tired of driving back and forth. He is buying a new house in Saginaw Township and we are going to be moving there. We still have 3 months left of school this year so I'll be finishing 1st grade there. I hope I make some new friends there.

We went up to Saginaw to look at our new house. We're going to move this week. Easter was about a week ago. The yard is all mud and piles of dirt. It is a one-story house and brand new. It has three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and basement. It has hardwood floors and smells new. There are lots of other houses in the neighborhood. I'm sure I can find some friends here.

It didn't take us long to move. We used our station wagon to move most of our stuff. Mom and Dad did all the work and told us to stay out of the way. I got to pick out my own room and it's much better than my old room.

I started at my new school. It is called Westdale Elementary. It's a brand new school. My old school didn't have a name. I wanted to crawl on my new teacher's lap and hug her but she would not let me. She said only babies do that and not big boys. She even called my parents and told them about it. I don't like my new 1st grade teacher any more. She gave me a book to read and study. It was very easy. I'm getting pretty good at reading, spelling, and math.

I made a new friend at school. I think we can be best friends. His name is Mike Herney. He lives just up our street, 6 houses away. He is taller than I am, and likes to build models and stuff. My mom became friends with his mom and my sister is the same age as his sister Joyce and they are friends too.

Mom says it's important for us to go to church. She really doesn't care what church we go to. I asked her what difference does it make. "They all believe in Jesus, don't they?" I asked her. We decided to go to a Christian Science Church. My grandmother is a member of Christian Science, my mom told me. She drops me off but she does not stay with me.

There are some new shows on TV I really like. We get much better reception here. I like I Dream of Genie, Bewitched, F-Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies, I Spy, and, best of all, Batman. Saturday mornings are the best. They have cartoons all morning. There is Johnny Quest, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and of course the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show. It's a great time to be a kid.

A bulldozer came by and leveled off all the dirt in our yard. Dad bought a wheelbarrow and a bunch of tools. He let me help him put it together. Dad then spent all his time filling the wheelbarrow with rocks and stuff from the yard. Then he used the rake to level off all the dirt. We have a large yard. It's much bigger than our old house. My grandparents came to visit us and Dad showed them what he was doing. Finally Dad planted grass seed and about an hour later it rained.

There is nothing better to a kid than the last day of school. Three months off! I'm glad to be out of first grade. We left to go on vacation. We are going to Rocky Mountain National Park this year. The first day out we went to my grandparents' mobile home. They just bought it. Then we stayed at a KOA at West Liberty, Iowa. Dad bought a tent camper that fits on top of our car. He also bought a new car. It is a Ford sedan and it is red. I like how a new car smells. That night we went to visit the Hoover Library not far from there. He is the president that the Dam is named after. When I say the word dam my parents get mad at me. I think it's funny. The next day we went to a KOA at Wood River, Nebraska. Interstate 80 is a better road than Route 66 but there is lots of construction going on.

We left there and headed into Colorado. This is the most boring day yet. There is nothing to see. The land is flat and there aren't any trees. It seemed to take forever but I started to see this gray on the horizon. As we got closer I could see snow on top of the mountains. Soon we were in this narrow canyon with a river and snaked our way up. My ears popped.

After about an hour of winding and snaking around we drove into a valley. We were in Estes Park. It's a small town of about 10,000 people in the valley just before you get into the national park. We camped in a campground there because Dad said that the park would be full. We needed to go into the park early in the morning when someone left, in order to get a camping spot.

The Rocky Mountains in Colorado are breathtaking. Mountains with snow-capped peaks surround us. Pine trees and wildlife surround our campsite. There are chipmunks and gray squirrels. We don't have them at home. There are also lots of hummingbirds. I've never seen hummingbirds before.

I made a friend with a guy from Houston, Texas. I don't know where that is. He is a truck driver. He tells me all about driving a truck. He seems really nice. When I grow up I want to be a truck driver.

Dad has us get into the car and we take a trip up Trail Ridge Road. It is very scary. We go up into the mountains and cross the Continental Divide. We are up around 10,000 feet. It seems like you could see forever. There is snow everywhere and we had a snowball fight.

We stay in Rocky Mountain National Park about a week. It is lots of fun. Every night we go to this campfire thing with this ranger who tells us about the park and the wildlife. We even go to a church service on Sunday. Some mornings it's real cold and I don't want to get out of bed. We have a tank of water that hangs off our car-top camper with a curtain. We use it to take a shower. It's really cold.

Far too soon we head for home. It's great to get to go to new places. It's also great to get home again. We go home the same way that we came. We still go up north camping every weekend. One of our favorite campgrounds is called Mack Lake. I get to wade in the lake with my sister and it's fun. I just wish I could watch TV too.

I'm not sure I like the Christian Science Church I've been going to. All they talk about is someone called Mary Baker Eddy. What's up with that? This is supposed to be a Christian church. I don't want to hear about her, I want to hear about Jesus. Maybe she is the scientist.

I went outside playing. It is a very hot day. I'm only wearing a pair of shorts. Some older boy comes by on his bike. He says that I am practically naked and starts talking dirty to me. I got a funny feeling in my stomach and I get a boner. I feel bad and excited at the same time. I want him to do more than just talk.

My best friend Mike and I are playing, wrestling, and we roll off this two- foot brick wall. I land with my left arm under my back and Mike on top of me. It really hurts. I cry and go home. My dad takes me to the emergency room. The Doctors take x-rays and tell me I had a hairline fracture. The Doctor says that means the bone is cracked and broken but it doesn't need to be set. I will have to wear a splint cast and a sling for 8 weeks. That is like the rest of summer.

Summer turns into fall and I start the second grade. My sister Mary Jane has moved on to junior high school. The teacher gets me real upset. She gives me the same book to read that they gave me in the first grade. I'm starting to really dislike school. They are basically repeating everything I learned last year and just adding a few new things. It is getting more and more boring.

I have fallen in love. It's the first time I have felt this way. There are twin girls I have a crush on. Their names are Janet and Jill. Jill is kind of quiet but Janet is fun to be around. I do everything I can to sit next to them.

We go to my uncle and aunt's house one weekend. My cousin is two years younger than I am. We have lots of fun playing and having fun being together. We take a bath together and we have boners. We play with each other and it feels good. Later we sleep together and we don't sleep much. I don't know where I learned to do all the stuff I show him but it sure feels good. I tell him not to tell anyone. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. I was 6, going on 7, and he was 4, going on 5.

It's my 7th birthday and I have a new bike. It's too big for me but my dad says I'll grow into it. Why is it I have to be so small? I'm the shortest kid in my class. All the other kids tease me about it. My dad keeps telling me that height doesn't matter. He says I can tower above other kids with my brain.

It is pretty this time of year. The trees are all different colors. Our teacher has us bring in the more colorful ones and we put them in wax paper and used a cloth and an iron to seal them. Then we hang them on the wall. I still don't like school. It is very boring.

Like I said before, Mom is always trying to teach me things. I don't understand much of what she is trying to teach me. Like she says, 'Pride always goeth before a fall.' I thought pride is a good thing, like when I behave myself my parents are proud of me. Mom has lots of friends. White friends. Black friends. Fat friends. She is always taking my sister and me with her to her friend's house. We go to the other side of town to a black friend's house. They have a boy my age and we become instant friends. We go for a ride on his bike, riding double. I am sitting on the handlebars and we go by a group of other black boys. I get the weirdest look from them.

Mom told me this story. 'The American Indians have a story about someone they call the Great White Hope. They believed that someday a white man would come along that was going to open white people's eyes about the way that the Indians were treated. This person would go on to save the world. They withheld this information from the white man because of the way that they were treated.' I think my mom is weird.

I'm sick and tired of the Christian Science Church I'm going to. Mom says that I can go to whatever church I want. My dad knows this preacher that was in his hometown when he was a kid so I decide to go there. Its called Grace Presbyterian Church. Mom drops me off because she goes to her own meetings. The Baha'i Faith doesn't have a church. They just meet in someone's house.

Dad sometimes plays with my sister and me. He will lie on the couch and bet us that we can't stop his arm from moving, or that we can't pull him off the couch. He usually plays this game after he has had several beers. Mom doesn't like us playing these games. She is afraid one of us is going to get hurt. During the news we have to be very careful to be quiet. Dad gets real mad if we talk or make noise. He watches the Huntley-Brinkley report on NBC. He also wants us to be quiet when he is reading his paper. All the news is bad. All they talk about is this war in Vietnam.

We celebrate our first Thanksgiving in our new house. I like turkey dinner. I guess we have lots to be thankful for. We have a new house. We have a new car. I have a mother, father, and sister that love me. Life is good.

Christmas is here and my grandparents are here. We all go to church together. There is snow on the ground so we have a white Christmas. My sister and I get lots of toys and stuff. Santa Claus is good this year. I'm not sure that I deserve it. I have done some bad things.

New Year's Eve is here and my parents won't let me stay up until midnight. I wish I were big so I could stay up later.

1967

We go to Caro and spent New Year's Day with the Wood family. I get to play with Wendy all day and it is fun. Dad and Mr. Wood watch football all day. They get very excited when they watch football.

I get my report card from school for the first half of the school year. My parents are very mad at me. The teacher says that I'm not spending my time wisely. The teacher says that if I don't try harder I might have to repeat the 2nd grade. I hate it now. It's so boring. If I have to do it again I think I might just die from being bored. My parents ground me and say no TV for two weeks. I watch TV about 5 hours a day or more. Now I'm really going to be bored. I got a radio for Christmas. I listen to all the channels and I find one that is from the TV station. Now I can listen to TV even if I can't see it.

My mom is starting to teach me stuff about her faith, the Baha'i Faith. She tells me that the leaders in the country were one of the founders of the faith lived were going to shoot him. The police there took him from his home to a place to be shot. The police got troops to shoot him but when the smoke cleared he was not there. All the troops that tried to shoot him ran off. The police found him back at his house. He said he needed to finish a letter he was working on and after that was finished they could shoot him. He finished the letter and the police got more troops and shot him. This time it worked. All who were involved died a violent death. Her point is that if God has something that he wants you to do, no one could stop you. It all sounds like something right out of the Twilight Zone to me.

I spend most of my spare time playing with Mike Herney. He is my best friend. There are plenty of other kids here but I spend most of my time with him. Except for this kid my age that lives across the street from him, called Scott. I have not tried to play around or do anything like that with him. This construction crew has started building a house across the street from us and a house next door. I hope some more kids my age move in there. Scott has a sister about three years younger than him. Scott and me talk and we decide to start a nude club. We invited his sister and two other boys across the street. We go out into the field nearby and talk his sister and the kid from across the street to pull down their pants.

The kid from across the street tells his parents and they come to see my parents. My dad has a long talk with me and asks me all kinds of questions. He tells me only little kids do stuff like that and I should not do something like that again. It is real embarrassing.

I finish the second grade and I am so happy that I don't have to repeat the second grade.

We go on vacation out west again. This year we have a tent trailer. We meet up with my grandparents at Grand Island, Nebraska. They have an Air-Stream trailer and are on a caravan with a bunch of other Air-Streams. Then we head off to Rocky Mountain National Park again. It is lots of fun.

I have lots of fun the summer of 1967. There is a girl just up the street named Mary Trob. We become friends. I can get her to take off her clothes if I take off mine. We do this several times together. She is living with her grandparents and after the summer she is going home to her parents. I'll probably never see her again.

My Great Uncle Donald and Great Aunt Jane are here to visit. They are real nice and I got this flying Batman, which is one of my favorite shows. Then my cousin Glenn with my Auntie Alma arrived. It takes us a while to get over our shyness but then we are like the best of friends. Glenn and my Auntie Alma live in California with my Uncle Arnold who is in the Air Force. He is a navigator on a B-52.

Labor Day weekend we go camping with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. The cousin that I had played around with before was there. We went off to the woods by ourselves and give each other pleasure.

I start the third grade and discover that there are two third grade classes. The twins are in the other class. My teacher's name is Mrs. Warnock. I still like the twins but I have myself another girl friend. Her name is Debbie. She knows that I like her. I asked her to marry me and we get married at recess with all the kids helping out.

I just turned 8 years old. I get a bunch of toys and stuff.

School is even worse than it was the year before. The teacher basically teaches the same thing that they did last year but add a few new things. I don't see any point to it so I don't even try. I spend my time dreaming and talking with other kids.

Thanksgiving is here and we have lots of good food. There are also some good shows on TV. We watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I like to see the big balloons.

Something really weird happened. We go on a school field trip to a planetarium. The instructor showed us all the stars and stuff. I sit next to Debbie and it was dark. I ask her to kiss me on the lips and she does. The instructor running the star show showed us where the Christmas star would have been and it is right over my head. I feel like I get hit with about 1000 volts of electricity and these words come into my head. 'As it was, so again it shall be.' I freak out. I understood that when I grew up my life would be like Jesus' life was.

On the bus ride home I'm totally freaked out. I just stare out the window, thinking. It couldn't be possible. I'm just some average kid. I'm nothing special. I can't tell my dad about it. He'll think I'm crazy and put me in a hospital. And I can't tell my mom about it. She will tell the whole world about it. I finally decide that I would not tell anyone about it and try to forget that it ever happened.