September – December 1980
My Uncle Curtis moved back home after divorcing his wife Linda. This was the best thing that could have happened to me. The man was (and is) a creative genius and introduced me to magic markers. He bought me my first box of crayons and coloring book. Thus, my love of art was born. Curtis encouraged my drawing and coloring and told me that I was a natural. Early on, I learned to channel my hurt and anger into something positive. (Part of the reason I want to be an art therapist now.) For me, it was almost a survival tactic.

Curtis had a twenty-four set of markers that had me drooling. I dared not touch them, but I loved to hold them in their clear, plastic holder and just admire the colors. I still remember those markers and the imprint that they made on me.

My favorite colors were green and violet-blue. That still holds true, though I really love all colors. I think the green thing was because of Kermit the Hunk. (Had he ever left Miss Piggy, we would have had a torrid affair.)

Curtis also introduced me to my first taste on non Claud-and-Iris music. The only music that my grandparents had was gospel albums, Gene Autrey’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and Box Car Willie’s “Greatest Hits”. I was dying a little more everyday because of this. Curtis brought in a record with this song on it called “Valley Girl”. It started out, “Gross to the max, Gag me with a spoon…” I thought this was hilarious and I begged him to listen to it over and over again. There was a pumpkin on the label at the center of the record, and I watched it spin around and around, the orange fading in with the blue on the background.

I spent a lot of time in Curtis’ room … drawing, listening to music and breathing a little freedom. I could get away with it, too. Summer was over and it was too cool to be outside all day. (Perhaps that’s why I love winter now?) Iris caught on the fact that I was enjoying myself and dragged me out of Curtis’ room during soap opera commercial breaks. This was only a small deterrent because I could color in my room though and if I was really quiet, I could hear the music through the wall.

January 1981
I celebrated my 4th birthday only after Claud came home. He brought hot dogs from my favorite place in Liberty, The Dairy Bar. They crammed everything in one bag whenever you ordered. We always joked that someone had sat on them. They had really good food, though – sat on or not.

Due to a big fight that I heard part of but didn’t fully understand, Curtis had to move out. I was devastated. My favorite relative and mentor was leaving. He gave me his markers and told me to hide them from Iris. I did, but I wished that I could have hidden him there, too.

I later found out that the reason Curtis had to leave was because he had told my grandparents that he was gay. They told him to leave their house and not to come back until he “over it”. They still don’t speak to each other to this day, though he brought his two sons to their house for Christmas a few years after this happened.  I have intervened on Curtis’ part many time to Claud. They don’t acknowledge that they have a son, even twenty years later. Also, unbeknownst to me at the time, Curtis went to live with my mom and her newest boyfriend in Greensboro when he was booted.

See the whole story so far here.