Lightning struck my family tree
(Book - Regular Print)

All families are formed by nature and held together by the bonds of association. It is this association that forms opinions. After due consideration, I have come to realize that I was raised by unskilled, uneducated minimum wage earners who lived in constant fear that the slightest miscalculation might cause their already shaky world to collapse. They were everyone who had to struggle to survive in life and survive they did. And above all... they loved me even when I made it hard. The good thing about people like these is that they teach you a strong work ethic, as that is the only thing that will save you in the long haul. The bad thing was that my family always seemed to hang around with people that were worse off than we were. So, you can imagine the quality of association that formed me. These are my recollections of those who caused me, at the age of about eight, to declare to myself, "Lord, if there's a better way, please let me find it"!! ...I'm not sure I was ever answered.