My grandmother cared for me the best she knew how. She was married to a man in the Air Force that loved me dear. I occaisionally saw my mother, but throughout my entire childhood, I was told that she was my sister.
My grandmother wanted me to excel. She wanted me to always be at the top of my class. She enrolled my into swimming, gymnastics, ballet, tap, jazz by the time I was 4 years old. After school, I would come home and the neighborhood kids would go outside to play. I had to sit at a desk and study. I did all of my homework, I memorized Sripps Spelling Bee books, I was questioned with mathmatical flash cards, I had to memorize chapters out of my books. The questions at the end of each chapter had to have answers that compared exactly to what was in the content of that chapter and I had to know the exact number of page and subtopic that each answer was on. If I didn't know, I would get licks with a wooden spoon. People saw me as a wonderfully smart and behaved child.
In the morning, my grandmother would dress me. She would cook my breakfast and do my hair. I had gorgeous all natural dark brown hair. It was so silky that it couldn't even hold a hair tie. Every night, my grandmother combed it 100 times. In the morning, I would have to sit still and eat all of my breakfast. If I didn't do either, I remember getting my faced shoved into my cereal. Then I would have been dragged by my hair up the stairs and tossed into a bath tub of running water. Water that was so cold, it couldn't have come out of the faucet any colder. I would cry and scream until I succombed and would repeatedly apologize for not sitting still.
I remember the fierce look on my grandmother's face. It was like she would black out. I was too scared to run. If I tried to grab that spoon, she would beat me even harder.
I wasn't allowed to play in the front yard for fear that someone would kidnap me. We always had a fenced in back yard. I was to always play there. I was told that if I was kidnapped, they would rape me. I would then be poked, grabbed and proded viciously in places that were uncomfortable.
I wasn't allowed to date. I couldn't have friends that were boys. My girl friends had to be pre-approved. If they wanted to hang out with me, they would have to come over to my house. To this day, I've never slept at a girl friend's house.
I have no child hood girl friends.
My grandmother wanted me to excel. She wanted me to always be at the top of my class. She enrolled my into swimming, gymnastics, ballet, tap, jazz by the time I was 4 years old. After school, I would come home and the neighborhood kids would go outside to play. I had to sit at a desk and study. I did all of my homework, I memorized Sripps Spelling Bee books, I was questioned with mathmatical flash cards, I had to memorize chapters out of my books. The questions at the end of each chapter had to have answers that compared exactly to what was in the content of that chapter and I had to know the exact number of page and subtopic that each answer was on. If I didn't know, I would get licks with a wooden spoon. People saw me as a wonderfully smart and behaved child.
In the morning, my grandmother would dress me. She would cook my breakfast and do my hair. I had gorgeous all natural dark brown hair. It was so silky that it couldn't even hold a hair tie. Every night, my grandmother combed it 100 times. In the morning, I would have to sit still and eat all of my breakfast. If I didn't do either, I remember getting my faced shoved into my cereal. Then I would have been dragged by my hair up the stairs and tossed into a bath tub of running water. Water that was so cold, it couldn't have come out of the faucet any colder. I would cry and scream until I succombed and would repeatedly apologize for not sitting still.
I remember the fierce look on my grandmother's face. It was like she would black out. I was too scared to run. If I tried to grab that spoon, she would beat me even harder.
I wasn't allowed to play in the front yard for fear that someone would kidnap me. We always had a fenced in back yard. I was to always play there. I was told that if I was kidnapped, they would rape me. I would then be poked, grabbed and proded viciously in places that were uncomfortable.
I wasn't allowed to date. I couldn't have friends that were boys. My girl friends had to be pre-approved. If they wanted to hang out with me, they would have to come over to my house. To this day, I've never slept at a girl friend's house.
I have no child hood girl friends.
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