I was the oldest; I was born when my mother was nineteen and a half years old. My dad was 25. My parents gave me a great childhood; I was really fortunate.

My mother was very pivotal my life. She wasn’t raised under the best circumstances but she really gave us kids a strong foundation. Her family was plagued with a lot of issues such as alcoholism. That created an unstable childhood for her. But she gave us a very stable childhood. I was happy.

We lived in Chula Vista until I was about two years old, then we moved to Rialto. I spent grade school there and then we moved to Wrightwood, which is up in the mountains of Southern California. Then, we finally moved back to Chula Vista, where I went to high school.

My folks always wanted to live in the mountains. They moved up to Wrightwood and started a bakery business which, unfortunately, didn’t do very well. Ultimately, they had to move back down where my dad could get a job.

My father was a firefighter for most of his career. Toward the later part of his life he worked as a repairman for Sears working on appliances. He was a good guy.
Every once in awhile my mother would work in a bank, but she was primarily a homemaker.

I have two sisters. One is thirteen months younger than I am, and one is about four years younger than I am. I have a brother who is fifteen years younger than I am. Actually, my parents adopted him in 1969.

Times were so different then!

I remember then that families with three children had the opportunity to adopt. But things all changed with Roe v. Wade. My brother was three months old when we brought him home.