Growing up in Southern California during the Depression within a dysfunctional family controlled by a domineering stepfather was difficult. Here are a few topics:

1. George often bragged: "I got my first piece of ass when I was ten."

2. Mom thought that it was good for me to see my dead friend lying in a casket. Wrong!

3. I would search the house for mom's bottles of wine. When I found one, I poured her precious fluid down the drain.

4. As Jennie drove the station wagon, George ran his right hand all the way up her dress. This was very humiliating to me.

5. Three of my childhood friends lost their lives. My dad and one uncle committed suicide.

6. George put the 1938 Oldsmobile in low gear and rammed the big, chrome plated bumper into the right side of the parked car to cave it in.

7. Mom said that she saw George having sex with one of the burros.

8. I just hoped that my arms held out so that I would not drop the whirling "buzz" saw and cause it to shatter.

9. When my car hit the moving train, I was ejected and as I rolled through the weeds I said to myself "you're dead, Buz."

10. I lined the wall of the thirty-two foot deep cesspool with loose bricks while never using any safety equipment.

11. As I turned the steering wheel of the Model A to the left, the car landed on its right side. One guy's head went partially through the cloth roof.

12. We were thirty miles away from the first hydrogen bomb blast. The heat and shock waves were intense.

13. George shot himself in the heart. No one attended his funeral.

THERE IS MUCH MORE. READ ON

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