Chapter 2.

County Road 569 was a dead end rock road that ran about a half a mile long. On either side of the street there were tall trees and honeysuckle plants that bloomed every spring. My entire family lived on the right hand side of the road. The very first house on the right was a log cabin where my grandma, grandpa, and uncle Bubba lived (my moms parents and her little brother). The second house on the right was our double wide trailer. It sat far back off the road, off of about a quarter of a mile long driveway. After living their a few years my two aunts and their husbands put another double wide trailer at the entrance of our driveway. At the very end of the road on the right hand side was my great grandmas house (granny Lola). Her house was one that her and her first husband built in the 1940’s. She lived their a long time and is the entire reason our family had a place on County Road 569. In between these houses was nothing but land, trees, ponds, creeks, and cattle almost all owned by my grandparents and Lola. Lola owned most of the land and my grandad owned all of the cattle. There were a few houses across the street. One house was almost directly across the street from our driveway, positioned a little to the left. There were a few neighbors that lived in that house throughout the years, Sherry and Grady being the ones we grew the closest to and who lived there the longest. There was also another dead end road that was directly across from our driveway. That road wasn’t always there but it was built when I was in the 5th grade and two families moved out there. There was a house to the left where a family and their kids moved. They rode the bus with us and one of their sons was in my grade. Then there was a house past the road where an older gentlemen built a brick home for him and his wife to retire in and at one point in time, another person moved out there and lived in a travel trailer on the right hand side at the end of that road. I remember him being the friendliest with my parents out of all of the people that lived out there. A little down CR 569 in between my house and my granny Lola’s house on the opposite side of the street was a beautiful piece of land owned by a gentleman named Milton and his wife Carolynn. They lived their for years and years, built their home with a huge back porch, a lovely circle driveway, and planted the nicest greenest grass I had ever seen as a kid. Milton owned cattle as well which stayed across the street from his house which would be the land directly in-between my house and my granny lola’s house. This is important for you to know because Milton often times spent hours upon hours mowing the land next to my house and he’d often times be the friendly neighbor that would wave his hand or stop to say hi when I was outside playing and sometimes, when I was home alone after school he would tell me that I could go hang out with Carolynn, his wife, because he knew sometimes that I was scared to be home alone. They were very kind people but to put this story into perspective, they didn’t get along with my parents. I can’t say I knew why as a kid, but now as an adult, I do just think that Milton and Carolynn maybe had an inkling about what was going on in my house- drugs. They never could prove it but looking back, I’m sure it wasn’t hard to tell. 

I mentioned before that our house was a trailer. When I say trailer though, I don’t mean a run down tiny shack. Back in the early 2000’s double wide mobile homes were very popular. I remember the day we went to the lot where we got to view a bunch of double wide mobile homes and pick out the one we wanted. I wish I had pictures to show you what it looked like but I’ll describe it to the best of my ability. As you walked in, there was the living room and behind the living room was a little carpeted area that could have been set up as a dining room but it became a little play area for me and my sister. It also had a dart board where my parents played darts with their friends often. We had a fireplace in the living room with a mantle, there were mismatch couches, a living room table, and a massive TV because flat screens weren’t a thing yet. There was a tiny hallway to the right of the living room that connected to the master bedroom which also had a master bathroom that contained a huge jacuzzi tub that I loved. The kitchen was off to the right behind the living room. The kitchen had white tile with grey countertops, an island in the middle, lots of counter space and lots of cabinets. We even had a dishwasher. Connected to the kitchen was the laundry room and a bedroom. The bedroom had double glass doors. This was the nursery for my little sister. That room connected to the master bedroom which is why they made it the nursery. To the left of the living room was a hallway that had two bedrooms, one to the left and one to right and at the very end it had a bathroom. Initially, my bedroom was the one to the right but when my sister and I got older the bedroom on the left became mine and the one on the right became hers. The nursery became a junk room full of stuff my mom refused to get rid of. 

Our house was extremely cluttered and smelled like smoke due to my (step)dad, Richard, smoking inside. My mom was a hoarder and my dad collected junk. He was always tinkering with some little gadget whether it be a radio he found in a dumpster that he was trying to get to work or was stripping copper from old wires to go sell for money, there was stuff everywhere. But, it’s just how we lived and what I knew. My mom couldn’t throw away anything for everything had sentimental value. There were times the house looked and smelled clean though. I’ll never forget the nights I’d go to bed with the house a mess and wake up to it being spotless. My parents would stay up all night sometimes jamming to oldies rock, cleaning the house. I thought it was so cool that they stayed up all night and I was always happier when the house looked clean. Little did I know the reason they were able to stay up all night until years later. 

When we got this house, my family was happy. My mom and dad both worked in Mckinney. My mom worked at a little furniture store called Rent-to-Own and my dad worked at a saddle shop called Action Company that is still there today. This was back in the day where people had pagers, not cell phones. I remember my dad paging my mom just to say “I love you Pretty Eyes”. That was his nickname for her. I’d go to work with my mom sometimes when she had to work weekends. There was a donut shop right down the way from her job so we’d go down there, I’d get donuts, and then I’d sit on one of the set up living room areas in the furniture store and watch Toy Story all day long. I loved it so much. My mom had my baby sister Rebecka and I loved every minute of that too. I was only 6 years old which is the prime age where little girls love to play house and I had a real live baby to play house with. 

Although we lived in Farmersville I was finishing out my kindergarten year in Princeton. My mom would take me to school on her way to work and sometimes she’d stop at our favorite fast food place, Taco Delight, and get me a breakfast burrito. It’s still there to this day and it’s still my favorite place to grab a breakfast burrito when I visit my home town. My kindergarten teacher’s name was Mrs. Barker. I loved school. I wanted to impress my teachers all the time and thinking back, I wonder why I was like that. Maybe the perfectionist in me at a really young age. Nonetheless, I was in an advanced reading group that got to go twice a week during nap time to do fun reading exercises. Yes, I said fun. I felt so special getting to do that and it is one of my fondest memories from my early years. I went to daycare after school and I loved it there too. I had lots of friends. Life seemed so good. I was happy go lucky, living close to family for the first time ever, I had a baby sister, I was doing well in school, we had a new home, and everything was great. Until it wasn’t. I was introduced to drugs, alcohol, and sexual abuse shortly after moving to County Road 569. But before getting into that, I wanted to set the scene. Chapter three coming soon.