The Return

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My time in Germany was wonderful.  But I had become a loner. My siblings were younger, my parents were older, and I never had the chance to establish good friends at school because the school itself was far distant which prevented most after school activities.

But once stateside, things changed.  Friends would gather and listen to my stories abroad and I soon found that I was a cut above them in maturity, and a grade level or two ahead in the California high school that I attended.  And I was the leader of my pack.

Sports, cars, and girls soon became my passion.  But soon, wrestling, baseball, and football gave way to cars, and cars gave way to girls.  Older girls which seemed to be closer to my maturity.  And that seemed to be the case well into my future.

Probably unlike most kids my age, I planned for the future.  Pop was nearing his retirement from the Army and I soon realized that civil service was my ticket, since I could get a blue collar job with minimal education.  And at any given opportunity, I would talk with government workers about their benefits, and such.

At age 16, I realized that I would soon be a father.  What a shocker.  To me, to my parents, to her, to her parents, and everyone else it seemed.  It seemed there was no one who offered any word of encouragement or support for a marriage, not even the gal that was to become my wife.

I always thought Pop was kind of a boozer, kind of ignorant, and kind of distant.  But he reminded me of a talk he once had with me as a child about how important it is make the world a better place, at every opportunity.  Although I never remembered that talk, it was reassuring to me that he supported any decision that I would make that fit his criteria.

So, within a few months, after court ordered emancipation hearings, and clergy counselings,  I found myself married and soon to be a father at age 17.
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