I remember my childhood as much like the original , "Our Gang ," movies . My Mom gave birth to my brother , when I was one and a half , so I was given a lot of freedom to roam early on . I remember a broken concrete block wall , that worked like stair steps , that we used to get to the roof top of a string of flat roofed townhouses . One had been made into a bar with a false front wall extension . I can remember being up there looking at the people over that wall , until some guy came out and yelled at us for being on his roof . Another kid showed me , that if you took empty glass milk bottles to another little store , you could get candy in exchange for them . Somehow Mom found out about it , and I got a talk about stealing (what ever that meant ) .

I could say “mixed” because i had good things and generally loving parents. but i was a very unhappy kid and teenager. an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, dysphoria and sexuality i couldn’t understand, and a father who believed in the hierarchy of father-mother-children, as well as abuse he considered to be discipline. that’s not a good home life, but many who grew up in the same situation would say it is.

Extremely mixed

Still having one.

It was mostly happy even though our parents divorced when I was seven and we basically had two different families. Two not so good stepmothers, one great stepfather, but it was a good childhood. I think it had a lot to do with shaping my ability to adapt, something that has served me well in my life.