Having the freedom to go and do as I pleased made life easier for an only child, my mom worked the grave yard shift and we rarely saw eachother. My grandparents were the surrogates who raised me in her absences, we were just trying to survive in a small rural town. But for all of that life was rich and the lessons I learned were rarely harsh or demanding.
As a child I had the good fortune to be able to travel and every summer we did, visiting family, attending family reunions at my great uncle's farm in Oregon, by the time I was 12 I had traveled most of the western United States. We visited Yellowstone National Park on a regular basis and spent many weekends on the lake fishing and camping. Monetarily we were not rich but then money wasn't everything, we had eachother and that was enough. The morals and family values passed down to me have stuck with me over the years, guiding and shaping my life. Blood was the strongest bond, holding us all together no matter where life's winds blew us, I had 2 older cousins raised by the folks who were more like brothers, they helped raise me and toted me around with them where ever they went. Hiking, fishing behind the old Qwik Way, riding our bikes just as far and fast as we could pedal them. It was a good way to grow up, full of adventure and freedom, we roamed far and wide and rarely looked back.
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