I was born to a military man and his wife. They met when she was a nurse at a hospital, taking care of his sister, and he came during visiting hours. I don't remember anything about my life on the base, but I am told we didn't live there for very long, and we lived in Hawaii and Charleston for a very short time before moving to North Carolina. Some details about my early life later emerged that led to my understanding of some of my habits, like putting catsup on scrambled eggs. My babysitter did that when she cooked eggs for me when my mom was working. I also developed a craving for sugar. I climbed up on a keepsake cabinet and stuck my hand in the sugar bowl. Some say that a craving for sugar is learned, but studies show that theory does not hold true.

My earliest memory is of my neighbor, who later became great friends with my mom, coming over to borrow something when we first moved in. I was upstairs looking at myself in the bathroom mirror. Yep-that was me-always a million miles away. Little did my parents know there was a reason for that (more on that later).
When I went next door to visit, I noticed how strangely our new friend dressed, and that she sat cross-legged on the floor, and always walked around her house and yard barefoot. I later found out that she was French-Canadian, and her husband was Greek. She fixed Greek foods for lunch when I came over. I was great playmates with her son, a few years younger than me. My mom used to babysit him. She took him with us on field trips when she was a room mother for my school. He loved to collect rocks, and do pretty much the same stuff that I did.