Philip Morton:  

After High School I became a bartender making pretty good money along with the benefits my stepfather's crazy check got me from the VA and SSI. After flunking tennis at TJC and basically partying away my future, I decided that I might as well pay Uncle Sam back 'cause all I was doing was working, partying, getting into trouble, receiving government allowance...and cutting classes. 1984 introduced me to the Army where I was a cannon crewman, driving the howitzer, humpin' and firing 200 lb. TNT loaded bullets. Kinda fun but that didn't help my herniated disk problem I got playing football while at T.K. Gorman. My life almost ended while at a party in Manhattan, KS., where some guys were approached to "kick my ass" because some other kid was hitting on my girlfriend Michelle while I was in Germany. She spurned him for me. He wanted to do the job but figured he couldn't, so he got these guys to do it for him. It got way out of hand and I ended up getting stabbed in the stomach. Lost 3-5 pints of blood that night and almost died. That's #1.(You'll understand later.) After working in Kansas for the "Lone Star Cafe" (How fitting!)as night kitchen manager, I finally saved up enough money to get back home to Tyler where I immediately found out that the economy sucked, so I did a whirlwind trip to Virginia to sell resort vacation memberships. In doing so, I ended up losing ALL my posessions, car, furniture, EVERYTHING, but a duffle bag of clothes. Everything went to...Expand for more