Читать книгу Delivered From Evil - Anthony Greve - Страница 4

The Early Years

As early as I can remember, I had so many dreams and aspirations. If there was one thing that God gave me, it was the ability to dream. Dreaming is what kept me going. So many people lose hope along the way, but it’s important never to lose the capacity to dream.

My life was amazing growing up. I had a very full and better than average childhood. I’m the son of a Turkish mother and an American father. How did they meet, you ask? My dad was United States Military (Air Force) and based in Ankara, Turkey when he met my mother. They married overseas and later moved back to the States together. I came along in 1984. Four years later, my brother was born.

The first few years of my life were spent living in a little lakefront cottage. We had a dog named Ugly (in Turkish). My mother named him. On many occasions, a cousin of mine would strap me to his back, and we would go fishing. We were completely surrounded by nature. Though my memories from this time are few, I would spend a lot of time in my later years hanging out in this neck of the woods. Because so much of my family lived there, it would later get dubbed “Greve Land” by a friend of mine and me. There were plenty of areas to camp and lots of animals to see. Growing up, I would spend many days and nights out in Greve Land camping, fishing, dirt biking, and partying. I would also spend a lot of time overseas. My mother would take me to her homeland frequently, so I got to know both sides of my family, the American and the Turkish. I was also fluent in both English and Turkish from my earliest years. It was quite the gift to grow up bi-lingual and multi-cultural. I certainly had a grip on the American way of life, but my heart was filled with the Middle East. There was something about Turkey that always felt like home.

Growing up in the States, my parents would never let my brother or me drink soda as young kids, but when we were in Turkey, it was like being on vacation, so my mom would cut us a break. It also didn’t hurt that Grandma was on our side. In general, it seemed like we could get away with way more over there. The first time I ever drank Coca-Cola was in Turkey. Because we were not allowed to have it back home, I didn’t even know that it existed in the U.S. I came back sharing with everyone how Turkey had this amazing soft drink called Coca-Cola. Maybe it was time to free us from our sequestered environment a little bit. But Coca-Cola aside, I had a fantastic family and the best grandparents in the world.

I was always drawn to music, even as a small child. It so happened that there was a music store across the hall from my grandparents’ condominium in Turkey. Sometimes, when our door was left open as Grandma was cleaning, I would sneak across the hall when she wasn’t looking to check it out. Eventually, my mom would come looking for me and find me mulling around the music store. “What are you doing?!” she’d ask in a slightly agitated voice. The owner would say, “It’s okay! The kid’s an artist. He is going to be a musician.” So, as I reflect on it now, I can see that this was declared and spoken over me at a young age.

The music store owner would let me mess around on the instruments even though I was very little and didn’t know what I was doing. And, though I didn’t own a real guitar at the time, I did have a toy Pink Panther guitar; when I was home, I would hammer away on it like it was the real thing. What I didn’t realize was that I was already getting direction for my future. Music always seemed to be a part of my life though it wouldn’t be until years later that I would pursue it as a career.

I must have been between three and four years old when we moved from the cottage into our first home. It wasn’t long after that my prayer request was answered for a baby brother. Nolan Nathaniel Greve was named after pro baseball player Nolan Ryan. I loved my little brother. My mom would place him on the front of my four-wheeler Power Wheels, and we’d cruise around the yard. Our cruising didn’t last long since he would always try to take control of the vehicle. One memory I will never forget is my mom going to take a shower and leaving me to watch him. When she finished showering, she was thrown into a panic because she couldn’t find us in the house. I had taken Nolan outside, where we were playing in a puddle that had accumulated in front of the house. That might as well have been a lake to us! We were in the middle of a full-blown thunderstorm, and it was pouring as we blissfully splashed away in the puddle. Sadly, somewhere along the way, this kind of innocence is lost.

This era of my life was filled with Ghost Busters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, New Kids on the Block, and eventually Kris Kross—it should be very evident that I grew up in the mid to late ’80s and early ’90s. Nightmare on Elm Street was a hit movie, and it wasn’t long before I would develop an interest in horror films.

Once we were a bit older, my mom would send my brother and me to spend our summers with Grandma and Grandpa in Turkey. Upon our arrival, one of the first things my grandparents would do was take us to the local amusement park. We loved going and had a blast every time. At this park, you had to pay an entrance fee in addition to paying for each individual ride, but Grandma and Grandpa didn’t mind. They would let us go on as many rides as we wanted to. We would then travel a good eight hours by car to their summer house. This was where we would spend the majority of our time during these summer vacations. It was sort of a resort-style condominium community. Everyone knew each other. It was like the Cheers theme song, “where everybody knows your name.” The vacationers at this resort who came year after year became very close-knit. We had the time of our lives there. We would spend our days on the beach along the Marmara Sea having jellyfish wars, swimming, and kayaking. For young boys, this life was amazing!