But Then What Happened?

  Butch was my oldest brother, about 10 years my senior. He embodied everything one could want in a big brother.  My earliest memories start in about 1963 or so... when I was about 4 years-old. We lived in Lakewood, California... a few blocks down the street from Artesia High School where all four of my siblings would eventually graduate. Normally, brothers fight from time to time. Seems to be part of the psychological make-up of males as they grow up. But Butch and I never fought. Maybe it was the 10 year age difference but I'd like to think it was because of my sincere admiration for him and our brotherly love for each other. Butch was so cool! As a teenager, he had a job, a car, girlfriends and numerous buddies who would come over all the time. They were all cool too... Timmons, Higgy and many others. Sometimes they'd go down the street to the high school and play 'over the line,' a variation of baseball that could be played with as few as two players on each team. B...

  PARADIGM SHIFTS In 1975, at age 16, when I relocated from small town Iowa to Southern California, I felt that I was in Utopia. Not only was I freed from a miserable home life and the vices I had used to cope with it, but for the first time, I felt like an eager artist with a blank canvas before me. I was going to paint my life's picture with the colors and detail of my choice. My new life was a smorgasbord of opportunity with all the cool trimmings... the weather, the beaches, the mountains, the entertainment options, my favorite sports teams. Everything was new and exciting! So, for 15 years, 1975 to 1990... I partook of all that Southern California had to offer a young man in his teens and twenties. And it was FANTASTIC! During that time span, I graduated high school, went to college, got married to the love of my life, had 3 (and soon to be 4) little girls, and played softball year around. I was George Bailey and mine too was about to be a "Wonderful Life!" But in th...

  The period between 1990 and 1994 were among the most eventful for me and my growing little family. As the calendar flipped to the decade of the 1990's, we were still living in Jeana's childhood home in Lakewood, California. We had been there since July of 1983. Jeana and my marriage had survived the "7 year itch" and was closing in on a decade of wedded bliss. Maelynne, our oldest, would turn 8 in 1990, Tara 7 and Aubree 4.  FAMILY EXPANSION Perhaps the biggest news we discovered in early 1990 was that Munson baby #4 would greet us later that year. Being the clever human that she is, Jeana informed me of the exciting surprise by giving me a card. It was around Valentine's Day, so the card was not a surprise but the bulge in the envelope was certainly intriguing.  I don't recall much about the card but the "bulge" turned out to be a pacifier... a BABY pacifier. I was confused for a split second before the meaning became clear... we had another baby ...