The Streets of Bakersfield

The song written by Homer Joy and sang by Buck Owens has always had me thinking about people. "You say that you don't like me and careless how i feel, how many of you that sit and judge me have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?" Do you really know someone unless you have walked in their shoes? I say you never really know someone. You could be friends for years, but do you really know them inside? This takes me to the story of my life. I have friends that believe they know me, but that is only the part they have witnessed. What about the circumstances of my birth and early life? They or i have no idea how we got here, but here it goes. I was born August 18th 1964. It was rainy and had been really hot. At 2:07 a.m. i arrived. Almost 10 pounds of me. Let's go back to 1963. My sister who was born in 1954 and was 9 years old. Victoria had red hair and was a beautiful child. She was exiting a school bus on highway 96, when she was struck and killed by a gravel type truck. My brother was 16 and on the same bus. He recently told me it has broke his heart that he couldn't stop the event. Imagine carrying that in your heart for over 50 years. Yes that is correct i am the youngest of six kids. They were born in 1941,43, 45,47 and 54. I believe i am lucky to be here. My Mother was 44 when i was born. Was i a replacement for my sister? Some have told me i saved my mother from just giving up! I don't know, but that is a burden i wouldn't put on anyone. Let's jump ahead to 1972. My father passed away in December at the age of 56. Just shy of his 57th birthday. My mother was 52 and had no drivers licence,had never had one and never worked outside the home. I was 8 and had two brothers in the state prison. My sisters were married with kids of their own. My mother received less than $600 a month survivor Social Security benefits.Needless to say we were poor. I never felt like life was bad for me. I always knew that mom had it covered. She was a tough Cherokee Indian. I always thought i wish every kid at school had what i had. I didn't know any better. I was satisfied. I believe i have been in every prison in Illinois including Menard,all by the time i was 12. A great lesson i learned from their incarceration. Don't do it the way they did. I was bullied as a kid about my brothers unmercifully. I survived and vowed to be better than that. I went to college as the first member of the town i grew up in.You guessed it, i was picked on for that. "College Boy". I guess i showed them. I graduated in 1986. I'm sure some of my family was proud and others could have cared less. I have always used criticism as motivation. Tell me i can't do something and i will kill myself to prove you wrong. Those days are long gone now. I suffered my first knee blowout at 15. I have since had 7 knee operations, 2 shoulder operations, 1 thumb surgery and my gall bladder removed. My mother passed on Fathers day in 2002. I have had a horrible first marriage and survived that, but that is another story. I guess the purpose of this story is to get all this off my shoulders and to remind people before you complain about your life remember, have you ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?