Biography: The Beginning of My Life and What Lead to My Two Metal Hips Part 1

       In 1975, my parents moved into the forests of Wisconsin from Minneapolis. Originally, they moved out to the country with another couple, sharing space in an old farmhouse they rented. However, not long afterward, my parents bought a piece of land and began building their own house. They did odd jobs for money. My mom worked in Minneapolis (an hour and a half away) at Planned Parenthood. My dad worked, at different times, as a school bus driver for the High School, a dishwasher at a nearby restaurant, and a disc jockey for the local radio station. They weren't the only hippies in the area. There was a little enclave of hippies surrounding them; mainly artists who had moved out of Minneapolis and St Paul to reconnect with nature. Many lived in rundown school houses or had built their own places. They would meet often for pot lucks and sweat lodges, and had even put out a cookbook for their little community.

               My parents had moved to Minneapolis shortly after marrying in the fall of 1973. My dad was from Dubuque, Iowa, and my mom was from just across the river in East Dubuque, Illinois.  They had met while working as orderlies in the Mental Health ward of Sacred Heart Hospital in Dubuque. They had gone to the same High School and had hung around at the same parties, and had known of each other prior to meeting. My mom trained my dad in as an orderly and they started dating. Less than a year later they were married and on their way to Minneapolis.

               They had moved out to the country with dreams of making their own way. My mom baked fresh bread and worked on the garden as my dad built the house. For a while they lived in a tent. My dad says that summer was when he was healthiest he had ever been. He was tanned from working in the sun, and buff from hammering all day long. Soon they had a one room house built, with a loft for a bedroom. The house wasn't large; it had no toilet or TV.  My parents lived 10 long years using an outhouse, something our guests (mainly my grandparents) were not pleased about. Luckily, for me, I was still young and using a baby toilet, when they built on a second and third floor that included a bathroom with a toilet. There was also a wood stove for heat and a gas stove for cooking. Even as a small child it was my responsibility to run out and grab some logs for the stove. After school, before my parents got home from work, I would start up the wood stove while my younger brother brought in the wood and kindling. Until I was 5, the wood stove was the main source of heat for our house, and after that it continued to be the source of heat for the entire downstairs and my parent's bedroom. 

My mom

My dad

           Nine years after getting married, and seven years after moving to the country, I arrived into the little world my parents had made for themselves in the forests of Wisconsin. I was their first child and they were excited to be parents. There is a video of me at about 8 months. It was made by friends who had a son my age. They lived about a quarter mile away, and we were the only babies in the neighborhood.  In the video, I can be seen pulling myself up and walking unsteadily with the use of couches and chairs. I had bright blue eyes and dark hair and at one point I looked directly into the camera and said 'Dah'. Our friends had brought all their son’s pacifiers along, hoping to make a video of us fighting over them. However, never having used a pacifier, I didn't know what to do with them and for the most part was disinterested. The other baby and I would paw at the pacifiers and eventually he would get one in his mouth. If I did manage to pick one up, I'd simply chew on it. The video was filmed on a very cold and snowy day, and everyone was dressed warmly, sitting downstairs at our house. My parents were in their early 30s at the time and looked the part of young parents. There is such an innocence about the scene. Two sets of young parents playing with their toddlers. When this video was filmed, the tumor that wouldn’t be discovered for another month, was already making a home for itself within my small frame. In fact, when it was discovered, it was at such a severe stage it is possible it had all begun in the womb. At any rate, what happened a month after the video was taken, makes the video itself seem all the more innocent. A simple glimpse at a time 'before', where most of my parent's concerns were wrapped up in whether, as my mom mentions in the video, they were spoiling me. 

Taken from the porch of our house in the country. Mom holding me, dad holding my brother, and my dad's parents.