My stepdad mixed canned dog food with ground beef and fed it to my brother and then taunted him about eating dog food. He beat my brother and beat me once with the rubber stop on the end of his cane that he was using for a faked personal injury suit.

He didn’t like that I was listening to Rush on the radio. I was 16 at that time and broke three of his ribs and lacerated his kidney. He was sent to the ER in an ambulance after driving himself to an urgent care. The police got involved. My face was a bruised mess from the rubber stop. Now a days he’d been arrested rather I wanted to press charges or not. I chose not to press charges. My mom told me that I would be out on the streets if I did.


The lead cop was really cool. I told him I was scheduled to be to work at a local family restaurant that I washed dishes at but was to embarrassed to go to work covered in bruises. He called the restaurant in front of me and without saying as much lead them to believe that I had been in a car accident and would be back to work in a few days but to expect some bruises when I came back.

I had to to testify that my step dad was severely injured IMO from his fall/faked lawsuit that he and my mother planned. I threatened not stick with the narrative my mother threatened to kill herself and that I could go to foster care for the next two year.

I spent a good chunk of my early years living in a trailer park and not always having electricity until Salvation Army paid the bill. Teased for having off brand shoes and such.

I’d never feel comfortable talking about these things with coworkers or with all but a few of my very closes long time friends but the fire and being somewhat unknown makes it easier and a form of therapy:)

I was blessed to have amazing grandparents that lived out of town and didn’t know what was going on. I spent most of my summers with them riding quads, learning to scout deer, train bird dogs, shoot guns and fish with. That’s always been my refuge.

Truth be told probably a lot of us have similar or worse stories. I had a drug issues after getting out on my own it hasn’t always been smooth but I’ve made a lot more good choices than bad. I have great kids my wife and I have a less than perfect marriage but we’re together and we’re stable we live a solid middle to upper middle class lifestyle. That’s my American Dream. I hope that are kids take it up a notch.

I’ve said way more than I started to when first commenting on this thread but fug it.