When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A hairbrush, a heart
A child’s imagination
Traveling through song

Rare Earth – Born To Wander

Used to flip my dad’s recliner over, crawl underneath and listen to this song on repeat through headphones pretending I was traveling through space.

Cher – Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves

Tied my shirt up and sang with Cher into my hairbrush always remembering to lean back and let my hair fall like a horse’s tail on the last note.

Five was great. I still had two parents and California.

But some psychiatrist told my mom that she would have a nervous breakdown if she didn’t leave my dad and she was the necessary one.

My mom became convinced that she could be a mother and father both because women could bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan. Women didn’t need men anymore and I didn’t need a dad. We didn’t need men because women could do anything that men could do. I can’t tell you how many times I told my mom that I didn’t want to be a man. The stress of it all turned my mom into a screaming manoheshe as she struggled in her role as mother and father both in Texas. Never could reconnect with my dad. He was convinced he was unnecessary.