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Dedication. To my Stevens sisters
who were,
and continue to be
HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE
BEGINNINGS
A LOST CHILDHOOD
A LITTLE ADULT
SCARS
A NORMAL LI(F)E
WALT DISNEY, DICK CLARK, COUSINS AND NEIGHBORS
A FRESH START
GLIMPSES OF GOD
INTO THE DARKNESS
ON MY OWN
NO LONGER ON MY OWN
TO BE CONTINUED
RESOURCES
Some years ago I was watching television when Nancy Grace showed a clip on her TV show of a prominent judge beating his teenage daughter. She strongly conveyed her horror at the images and spoke convincingly of the necessity of stopping this man and bringing him promptly to justice. Seeing this segment on her show was a major turning point for me. Although it was painful to watch, it was also strangely healing as well. You see, I was the girl in the video. Although my father wasn't a judge, he was a well-educated professional who had routinely done to me what I was now seeing on my television set.
I had been told over and over again that I was such a "bad girl" that I constantly needed to be disciplined. Spankings were necessary for a person like me who couldn't seem to learn any other way. I was "bad" when I was a child and got even worse when I became a teenager. I was never too old for a good spanking, because I hadn't yet learned how to behave. I wasn't being beaten; I was being disciplined. Poor, uneducated parents who lived in trailers beat their children. Parents with college degrees who lived in the suburbs "disciplined" theirs. I believed that lie for a long time.
.....
When the family needed to do some serious shopping, we headed "downtown" to Main Street.
As far as I was concerned, Main Street in Norristown was the center of the universe. One of my grandmothers bought everything she needed at Friedman's New York Store. (That was its name, even though it was located in Norristown. Nobody ever referred to it simply as Friedman's. Everybody always used the full name, Friedman's New York Store.) My father and brother got their good clothes from Gilbert's Men's Store. There was a Woolworth's, complete with a lunch counter serving comfort food all through the day. My personal favorite, however, was Chatlin's, one of those wonderful old time department stores which carried everything from clothing, jewelry, accessories, shoes and toys as well as scout uniforms and supplies. I loved walking on the old creaking floor boards and can still remember that distinctive smell of freshly-oiled hardwood floors of Chatlin's Department Store.
.....