C.C. Perkins:  

MY STORY *LIFE* I am living here in the sunny south in a small town about 90 minutes from the Gulf. I love small town life...it is for me. I like hearing church bells ring on Sunday morning,and the soothing amber glow of the front porch lights in a row. I love the energy and the pride around the high school floats that are in the homecoming parade.I like the small town band that displays an attitude; while trying to out do the band from the year before. I like knowing who's dog it is sniffing at my gate, and whose cat it is on my front porch, and who owns the raccoon that is under my house! I love all the older folk as well as the sweet babes just begining life. I like watching young romances develop and bloom...I like the smile of the local grocer and chatting with my favorite bank teller. So it is the small town life for me. I have lived in cities before. Big cities like San Francisco,Denver, Miami,Tacoma, Erie, Colorado Springs, and Portland, Maine. I liked having block parties as a way to integrate the neighborhood, and the Museum of Natural History, San Francisco Zoo, dinner at the Space Needle,dinner shows at Miami Beach, the sidewalk art show in Cocoanut Grove, 4th of July fireworks in Sacramento and Christmas shopping in Portland, Maine...but the small town life is for me. I think it is easier for me to connect and relate with others in a small town and for me that is important. Part of my existence is to give back, what has been freely given. I believe it is important to do something good for yourself,family and neighborhood in order to be strong and healthy.What excitement there is in *LIFE* when you are a part of a neighborhood that is kineticlly balanced to the positive! I think the first goal for a community is to show respect to the natural resources it embraces in its livelihood. For me, that is showing honor to the environment and the animals that surround; that is my motivation and where I start my momentum. I like to take the time to relax and smell the roses and watch the bees do the same...So it is the small town life for me. I take pride in being part of the warm community spirit and envision an entirely good and decent legacy as a whole that we can pass on to another generation; at least to give them something to reach out for, something for the willing and the inspired to grasp, a rock to stand on....I love sharing old and new ideas. Therefore, it is the small town life for me. I haved loved long stretches of wilderness and ancient forests.I used to be a timber cruiser in Washington, and I was paid to be in the woods all day measuring and classifying trees. I have loved cold, mountain streams when they were very clean and I could drink from them freely, and the frozen icicles stuck to the rocks in winter. I loved and will always love to float on my back with my eyes closed in a steaming hot natural mineral spring pool. I loved riding around through meadows and powerlines in an old pickup truck,in the fog while looking for deer; far, far away from anything. I loved watching elk caravan on the distant mountain with my dog next to me. I also loved squeaking when I walked in the snow on that warm sunshiney day during that winter. ...I loved all of that... I used to love at my cabin to start the day with an excellant cup of coffee, whilst setting on the front steps and overlooking the days task at hand in the woods. And it was child's play for me, that I loved; to count my leaps from high mound to high mound at the backshore salt marsh of my ancestral home.It was there that I first learned about loneliness and thought the seagull cries were for me. I used to love that too... These memories are still some of my favorites, and have a place in my heart. But, it is the small town life for me. *Education* I started school dedicated and eager to learn. At the onset school for me was an enjoyable pleasant experience. Then *LIFE* during the sixties demanded more attention, and I had to put my education on automatic pilot; as well as I could and when I was able. I was twelve when my education became a duality. At home I was much the caretaker of my little sister, my parents home, and the Rock Shop!...it was a huge education ! The Rock Shop...had all sorts of rocks from around the world, including : gemstones, crystals, mineral specimens. And I, the little sales person...got to tell the shop guests all about them. It was a wonderful experiance, the best part was when my father and I would go on rock hunting trips together. I loved spending time with my father, we went to old mines, mountainsides, streams, ledges deep in the woods, and to distant seashores;..all for the lure of what we could find. Dad also started excursions for other neat finds. I remember us walking for miles in the light fluffy sand, looking for another piece of that viking ship like he had found one day when he was walking the beach alone. Another time we went deep into the woods to an old settlement, and he roughed up the ground matter ever so slightly and excavated a tiny perfume bottle from a hundred years ago. Sometimes the people we met were an education for me.I remember traveling through the backroads of old timey towns to old diners and farmhouses for directions to trailheads. Then it was time for me to receive a different education as Mom and Dad divorced, and we moved on; leaving Dad behind at home. I started High School(and not in the best of moods). I worked full time and went to school and continued my *Education in LIFE*. I toured a jail cell, before we did as a civics class on field trip. It all worked out quite well, as while I was incarcerated for running away from home I wrote poetry on the walls of my cell. At the jailhouse I was able to give part of that tour to my class and share my poetry I had written. I remember,that it was then, other classmates signed on that wall too. I scored A's and B's in my classes, although, most of my time was spent in the art room. After completing my Junior year I went on to Portland High School and just took my GED and started technical school the following week at SMVTI. Once again *LIFE* got in the way, and at the age of eighteen I had been married, divorced, and given birth to my one and only biological child. *LIFE* continued its education, demanding all my attention. I did manage to take courses here and there...art (Miami Institute of Art FL.), Legal Secretarial Sciences(ME.), Legal Assistant training and internships (ME., N.H.,VT.),law enforcement private investigation,security management, asset protection and administration of justice,(CA.) forestry and wildlife law enforcement (ME.). Lots of FEMA and American Red Cross Courses (ME., CA., WA., MS.); (yes, I am an ERV driver), forensic accounting (ME.), marketing (ME.,MI.), aerobic instructor (CA.), lots of computer courses (ME.);AND MORE !! Meanwhile, I raised four children from potty training to driving cars. We lived on a lake in the middle of Maine and used to watch the bald eagles above us and on the ice, we had giant beavers in our backyard, deer in the front yard, wild ducks in the driveway, and moose just around the bend,a woodpecker tapping on the basketball backboard, ...and lots of fish. (Pickerels do not like to be pet)(*Education*) We also lived on the side of a mountain in Maine (literally-it was partially an underground house), it was there that we really jumped on the homesteading bandwagon and we raised rabbits, chickens, and goats (*Life and *Education*) *Work* When I started working outside the home,it was in restraunts and factories. As my confidence developed I then worked in offices,cashiering and later sales for the most part. The excitement of successful sales lead me to sales management,and factory direct distributorships. From there it was factoring and finance,and several business start ups. Currently, since 911, Worldcomm, Enron, Hurricane Ivan and Katrina. I am taking ...Expand for more