A social experiment from the beginning

                I lived in Somerville Mass. for Pre-School and Kindergarten.  I lived in Arlington Mass. for first, second, and half of third grade.  Then I moved back to Somerville for the other half of third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.  I went to a Catholic Kindergarten, and a Catholic school for grades four through six.  Next we moved to Cambridge for seventh and Eighth grades, and I went to a K-8 school, not a middle school.  Cambridge was formulative, I started working.  I learned how much money and self sufficiency meant to me.

                Not that I hadn’t been self-sufficient for a long time already at that point.  In Kindergarten I used to have to walk from St. Catherine’s in Somerville to Daycare.  True it was only three or four blocks, but I was barely five.  However it was in first grade I got my first taste of who I was and what I was truly capable of.  Let me explain.  During February vacation my mother didn’t have childcare for me.  I had relatives in Vermont who worked from home, and were in a position to look after me for the week.  My mother took me to South Station in Boston; she bought me a bus ticket.  I had my bag, and some change for the vending machine.  The ticket man told us that kids under twelve couldn’t ride alone.  I was six.  My mother asked a black family who was also going to Burlington if I could ride with them.  “Sure he’ll fit right in.”  Their only concern was that someone would be there to pick me up.  At White River Junction, I got some candy from the vending machines and changed buses, asking to make sure I was on the right one.  When I got to Burlington, the bus was almost a half hour early.  No one was there.  At six years old I got out the phone book, looked my uncle up and called him on a payphone.  I went to Vermont for several years during February and April Vacations.  I always rode the same way.  Alone on the bus, but in subsequent visits no one stopped us to say anything.

          I had lived in 8 different homes before I graduated high school.  I went to 6 different schools.  Both High Schools that I went to asked me not to come back without expelling me.  I wasn't a thug, tyrant, or bad-ass I just didn't seem to fit within the school environment..I was a passive aggressive behavior problem.  Now I live in Maine and am quasi employed while I explore job options after the Sheriff's Dept, and Jail...

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