Early Years
Lets move back in time a little bit. I was born in Rogers Memorial Hospital on 13th street in Rogers Arkansas on 13 December 1951. I was third from the last of seven kids, five boys and two girls. I attend Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic school from grades one though eight. Since my birthday was too late to register for first grade when I was 6, I had to wait an entire year before I could start first grade; a whole year older than the other kids, how embarrassing. Anyway, on the day of enrollment mom loaded up the car with us kids that were going to St. Vincent. While mom was inside, I was out in the school yard where I met Mark Turner. He was held back having to repeat first grade and was also seven years old; great, now everybody is going think I flunked first grade! Mark and I were off playing behind the school when mom finished her work and left without me. It seemed like an eternity sitting in the hot son in front of the school until mom discovered me missing and returned to get me. I’m sure that the tutoring, care and discipline the Benedictine Sisters so generously bestowed upon me serves to influence my lack of self confidence to this very day.
I started my freshman year of high school at Rogers Junior High School on poplar street. It was the old Central Ward Elementary school and now where the Frank Tillery Elementary School stands. I played on the Ridge Runner’s football team that year but didn’t go back the next year because my wrists were too week to handle the crab crawls required during practice drills. I faced a lot of bullying throughout my high school years. Most of the boys thought I was “queer” because I was timid, shy and very quiet spoken. Along with finding a core group of friends that were much nicer, I finally got a “steady girl” my senior year which put a stop to some of the harassment.
By my senior year, the war in Vietnam had become very unpopular and most young men were finding ways to avoid the draft. With my poor school performance and even poorer economic condition, there was no way I could get into college. After graduating I worked for my dad on construction projects but by August, facing a sure draft call and knowing dad expected me to have acquired skills through genetics and not his coaching, I joined the Navy.