Patti Adams:  

I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and grew up in Benton, Arkansas. Moved to Memphis in April 1999 (Memphian-by-choice). Only child, mostly raised by my mother's sister Glennie. Aunt Glennie died from cancer in 1972. My father died in a car wreck when I was 2-1/2 years old, and my mother just wasn't that into kids. My aunt lived in a 'rooming house' in Bauxite, AR. I used to 'goplayouttenayard' -- I drew houses in the dirt with sticks and put little acorn people in them, and then when I went in for supper, we would have Vienna sausage or Cream of Chicken or Chicken Noodle Soup and crackers, after which we'd go sit on the front porch and visit with the other 'roomers'. On Friday evenings, we caught a cab to Benton to visit my mother until Sunday night when someone would take us back to Bauxite. When I was 5, my aunt and I moved into my mother's house in Benton so I could start 1st grade in Benton. My mother remarried just after I started school, so I had a stepfather. All of the horror stories about stepparents are true. My stepfather died from lung cancer in 1973, and my mother died of Alzheimer's or old age or something in 1999. I'm a Scorpio, born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Got married when I was 16 (4 months pregnant), finished high school with my class despite the Saline County school board's efforts to keep me from attending class. I did not have a great time in school. I was fat (still am!), not pretty, so of course a lot of kids called me 'Fatty Patti'. Not a warm memory. Got called a lot of other things later on (yeah, I kept the yearbook that my Class of '70 trashed at the Senior Sign Party.). To all the people who were hateful to me, I would like to say I forgive you, we were young, let the past be bygones, etc. I would like to say those things, but, crap, y'all hurt me lots of times, not because of anything I did to you, but just because you didn't like the way I looked. Maybe I do forgive you, but I still remember. I equally remember the people who were nice to me, who were always nice to me, and they have no idea how much I appreciate them even now. Thanks to my 'smarts', mediocre grades came easily; good thing because I really really hated homework. So I was able to get by in school. Homework was hard to do in a home like mine. I never told anyone the things that went on at 1003 Jackmon Street -- I'm not sure there was anything that would have been done at that time anyway. From the time my aunt and I moved to Benton, my aunt and I were emotionally and physically abused by my mot...Expand for more