Wow. I can't imagine some of the life that you guys grew up in. It's hearbreaking that so many of you had such bad family relationships. My dad was a high school dropout at 16 when all three of his older brothers went to WW2, and like most of the men in his family, became a brick layer. Hard working does not begin to describe it. I grew up in S. Oak Cliff. I didn't think of us as "poor" because we had the just about the same lifestyle as those around us. What we did have is a loving, Christian family. One older brother and twin younger sisters. Dad never met a stranger. When I was a kid it would embarrass me the way he would just walk up to strangers and start talking to them. Many times about the Lord, but most of the time just being friendly. As I got older it became one the things that I will always look back on and smile about. He loved to make people laugh. I got that trait from him. Mom was the one who kept us in line most of the time, but if she ever told us, "wait til your dad gets home"...uh oh. Dad didn't play when it came to doing what mom told us. None of this "I'm gonna count to three [censored]" or "time out". But when I got the punished, I dang sure knew I deserved it. I remember when I was about 8 and had done something stupid that I knew was wrong dad told me something that I'll never forget and have passed it down to a lot of folks. He sat me down on our back porch, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, "Son, there's gonna be a lot of times in your life when you're gonna have to make a decision on what's right and what's wrong. Maybe your friends want you to do something that you're not sure of whether to go along with them or not. He drew a little line in the dirt and said as he pointed to each side, "one side is right, and one side is wrong. There's no middle on this line. If you don't know if what you're about to do is right or wrong, just don't do it and you'll never end up in trouble." Simple words, but man did it save me from myself over and over.

Dad taught me to hate football.


Mom, taught me how to fish. She'd pick me up from school and straight to Belton lake we went. Her and I, banked fished for hours.