Remembering for some, is an easy task. But for me, it's not that simple. Because of the abuse of my childhood, my mind did what was best for me at the time: It blocked all the horrible things from me. I have relatively few memories from childhood up to 14 years of age. So not only did my mind block me of the bad stuff, it took the good stuff with it as well. So, on this page, I will be piecing together my memory starting at 14 years old and going backwards. Hopefully by doing so, my mind will release that which has been locked away for a very long time. ~~ Peri
8th Grade
APRIL, 1979
Skipped school for 3 weeks and came back a week before my Solo competition at UIL for my flute. Forged Dad's handwriting to get excused for being gone so long. Only one day not excused. He never knew I was staying home during that time and he never noticed that I had one unexcused absence on my report card.
Mr. Esposito, my band director was furious for me being gone for so long. He stuck me in a room with a metronome and had me practice every day in that room until competition. Competition day arrived and I played before the judges. I didn't mess up not once. Judges all gave me passing scores across the board with flying colors. By doing so, I was to be awarded a medal for my performance.
When it was about time to leave, all band students were on the bus. Mr. Esposito said that he was going to pass out the medals for the band students that were approved for them. He got everyone taken care of and I asked him where my medal was. To which he replied, "You didn't earn one". I told him I did and had everyone pass the paperwork to him showing that I did. He looked at the paperwork, folded it back, had everyone pass the paperwork back to me, reached into his pocket and pulled out the medal to which he threw it at me. No kind words of congratulations, no nothing. Just a scowl on his face showing he was not happy having to give me a medal I so rightly deserved.
Skipped school for 3 weeks and came back a week before my Solo competition at UIL for my flute. Forged Dad's handwriting to get excused for being gone so long. Only one day not excused. He never knew I was staying home during that time and he never noticed that I had one unexcused absence on my report card.
Mr. Esposito, my band director was furious for me being gone for so long. He stuck me in a room with a metronome and had me practice every day in that room until competition. Competition day arrived and I played before the judges. I didn't mess up not once. Judges all gave me passing scores across the board with flying colors. By doing so, I was to be awarded a medal for my performance.
When it was about time to leave, all band students were on the bus. Mr. Esposito said that he was going to pass out the medals for the band students that were approved for them. He got everyone taken care of and I asked him where my medal was. To which he replied, "You didn't earn one". I told him I did and had everyone pass the paperwork to him showing that I did. He looked at the paperwork, folded it back, had everyone pass the paperwork back to me, reached into his pocket and pulled out the medal to which he threw it at me. No kind words of congratulations, no nothing. Just a scowl on his face showing he was not happy having to give me a medal I so rightly deserved.
7th Grade
FALL, 1978
Talent show at school. Played "You Light Up My Life" on my flute. I remember that when I looked out into the audience, I didn't see a single soul. It wasn't until I was done and stood up that I finally saw all the people and heard the applause. I didn't win the contest but I still had the nerve to play in front of so many people.
Had a huge crush on Robert Vasquez. He was 8th grade and I was 7th. He never knew I existed. But I knew that he did - that smile and those dimples got me right away. Every time I heard "My Eyes Adored You" by Franki Valli and The Four Seasons, I thought about Robert. I adored him from far away until I finally moved far away, never to see him again.
Jim came home with the first report card of the year. It wasn't the major one - the one that came just before Christmas Vacation. He was doing badly. I told little brother that he about a month and a half to get his grades up or else he knew what would happen. By Christmas vacation, he had brought his grades up and Dad was proud of him as always. I was happy that nothing would happen to me because of those good grades.
Talent show at school. Played "You Light Up My Life" on my flute. I remember that when I looked out into the audience, I didn't see a single soul. It wasn't until I was done and stood up that I finally saw all the people and heard the applause. I didn't win the contest but I still had the nerve to play in front of so many people.
Had a huge crush on Robert Vasquez. He was 8th grade and I was 7th. He never knew I existed. But I knew that he did - that smile and those dimples got me right away. Every time I heard "My Eyes Adored You" by Franki Valli and The Four Seasons, I thought about Robert. I adored him from far away until I finally moved far away, never to see him again.
Jim came home with the first report card of the year. It wasn't the major one - the one that came just before Christmas Vacation. He was doing badly. I told little brother that he about a month and a half to get his grades up or else he knew what would happen. By Christmas vacation, he had brought his grades up and Dad was proud of him as always. I was happy that nothing would happen to me because of those good grades.
6th Grade
Spring, 1978
Entered a poetry contest at school. Went through Encyclopedia Britannica and found a beautiful picture of a rainbow off in the mountainside to get inspiration for the poem. Entered the contest and won first place.
Entered a poetry contest at school. Went through Encyclopedia Britannica and found a beautiful picture of a rainbow off in the mountainside to get inspiration for the poem. Entered the contest and won first place.
5th Grade
4th Grade
3rd Grade
2nd Grade
1st Grade
Kindergarten
My first day of school! I was so excited! Finally I was old enough to go learn new things! My teacher was Mrs. Cooper. I really loved Mrs. Cooper. She was so nice to me. That first day, she passed out pages of things to color and was teaching the kids how to color between the lines. I already knew how to do that. So I pulled out my Big Chief Tablet and Jumbo Pencil and worked on getting my handwriting better and started working on the next set of words that Mom had started to teach me.
Mrs. Cooper was curious as to why I wasn't doing what the other kids were doing and came to my desk to see what I was doing. She watched me for a few minutes and then asked if I knew what I was writing. I told her yes. So she pointed out "cat" and I said "cat". She pointed to my name and I said "Annette". She did that a couple of more times and each time I answered her correctly. So she asked me who had taught me how to do this and I said my mom. From then on, she gave me a list of words to work on every week because I was already ahead of the other kids.
Mrs. Cooper was curious as to why I wasn't doing what the other kids were doing and came to my desk to see what I was doing. She watched me for a few minutes and then asked if I knew what I was writing. I told her yes. So she pointed out "cat" and I said "cat". She pointed to my name and I said "Annette". She did that a couple of more times and each time I answered her correctly. So she asked me who had taught me how to do this and I said my mom. From then on, she gave me a list of words to work on every week because I was already ahead of the other kids.
Before Kindergarten
It was a hot summer day and I wanted to fill up my little swimming pool. We lived in a trailer park, so the pool was one of those plastic ones you get at the store. In order to get the pool filled, I had to hook the hose up to the above ground water tank to get it filled. Mom had showed me how to do it. That day, the knob on the tank to release the water didn't want to budge. So I used all my strength and it finally moved, turning the water on.
I was walking back to the trailer to let mom know what I had accomplished when my head was telling me to look down. So I looked down. On the concrete where these big huge red, wet spots on the concrete. They weren't there when I went to go turn the water on. So I started to look all over to see where it could possibly be coming from. It was coming from my left hand. Between my thumb and first finger, the webbing between them was cut wide open. I had cut myself on the tank's glass tubing when turning on the faucet to fill my pill.
I started screaming for mom and she came out to see what was going on. She saw my hand cut wide open and freaked out and my dad to take me to the hospital. He said "It's not my fault she cut herself. It's your responsibility - you take her. I'm not." I don't remember if he watched little brother or not. I was in shock by then and all I remember was my hand hurting a whole lot.
It took 4 nurses to hold me down while I got 5 shots in my hand, and then 25 stitches to close me up. I screamed my head off so loudly people had to come see to make sure that no one was harming me. Dad never once helped to take care of me. Mom did everything to make sure my cut didn't become infected until the stitched fell out on their own.
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I had just turned 5 years old. Mom taught me some new things. First she bought me a drawing pad, jumbo pencils, and a pencil sharpener. She taught me how to sharpen my pencil, the opened up the drawing tablet and told me to get my coloring book. She told me to pick out a picture I liked and said "Draw what you see". I had picked out Winnie the Pooh sitting down, looking to his left like he was looking at something with a honey pot between his legs. It all came out right except for his head - it was little off but still pretty good for a 5 year old.
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One day, mom sat me down at the kitchen table and sat a Big Chief Tablet and another pencil on the table for me. Inside, she already written the alphabet down for me. She sat down beside me and slowly started showing me how to do each letter and where it went on the lines in my tablet. Then she left me alone. I was so excited! I was learning how to write! After about 6 months, she then started to teach me how to write my name and basic words, teaching me what the words said that I was writing. I learned really quick and kept that pace up until I went into kindergarten.
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I was 4 years old and bored. Mom sat me down one day, and showed me how to color between the lines on my coloring book. When I got that mastered, she then showed me how to color going all in the same direction instead randomly.
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One day my eyes started hurting me. It was hard to see. I was 3 years old. Dad was no where around. I don't remember him being home for awhile at that time. Mom took me to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston to have me checked out. We didn't have any money or insurance. A kind doctor by the name of Milton Boniuk said to not worry, he would take care of any expenses providing my mother would allow students to watch and be involved in my case. She agreed.
After three months of blood work and tests, the results came in. I had a tumor. But because it was 1969, technology was not like it was today. It was primitive at best back then. Dr. Boniuk didn't know if the tumor was malignant or benign. He would have to operate to know for sure. But there was a catch. He gave my mom two options. He could go behind the eye, thus saving it, and remove the tumor. But there would have been a chance of me being blind in both eyes by the age of 14. The other option was to take the eye out, remove all the tumor and I would have full sight in my left eye.
It was a heart wrenching decision. Mom chose the latter and my eye was removed. To this day, I still have a scar across the top of my head from ear to ear and a scar about 1/2 inch long near my right eye as well as a glass prosthetic eye.
I was walking back to the trailer to let mom know what I had accomplished when my head was telling me to look down. So I looked down. On the concrete where these big huge red, wet spots on the concrete. They weren't there when I went to go turn the water on. So I started to look all over to see where it could possibly be coming from. It was coming from my left hand. Between my thumb and first finger, the webbing between them was cut wide open. I had cut myself on the tank's glass tubing when turning on the faucet to fill my pill.
I started screaming for mom and she came out to see what was going on. She saw my hand cut wide open and freaked out and my dad to take me to the hospital. He said "It's not my fault she cut herself. It's your responsibility - you take her. I'm not." I don't remember if he watched little brother or not. I was in shock by then and all I remember was my hand hurting a whole lot.
It took 4 nurses to hold me down while I got 5 shots in my hand, and then 25 stitches to close me up. I screamed my head off so loudly people had to come see to make sure that no one was harming me. Dad never once helped to take care of me. Mom did everything to make sure my cut didn't become infected until the stitched fell out on their own.
**************************************************************************************************************
I had just turned 5 years old. Mom taught me some new things. First she bought me a drawing pad, jumbo pencils, and a pencil sharpener. She taught me how to sharpen my pencil, the opened up the drawing tablet and told me to get my coloring book. She told me to pick out a picture I liked and said "Draw what you see". I had picked out Winnie the Pooh sitting down, looking to his left like he was looking at something with a honey pot between his legs. It all came out right except for his head - it was little off but still pretty good for a 5 year old.
*******************************************************************************
One day, mom sat me down at the kitchen table and sat a Big Chief Tablet and another pencil on the table for me. Inside, she already written the alphabet down for me. She sat down beside me and slowly started showing me how to do each letter and where it went on the lines in my tablet. Then she left me alone. I was so excited! I was learning how to write! After about 6 months, she then started to teach me how to write my name and basic words, teaching me what the words said that I was writing. I learned really quick and kept that pace up until I went into kindergarten.
**************************************************************************************************************
I was 4 years old and bored. Mom sat me down one day, and showed me how to color between the lines on my coloring book. When I got that mastered, she then showed me how to color going all in the same direction instead randomly.
***************************************************************************************************************
One day my eyes started hurting me. It was hard to see. I was 3 years old. Dad was no where around. I don't remember him being home for awhile at that time. Mom took me to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston to have me checked out. We didn't have any money or insurance. A kind doctor by the name of Milton Boniuk said to not worry, he would take care of any expenses providing my mother would allow students to watch and be involved in my case. She agreed.
After three months of blood work and tests, the results came in. I had a tumor. But because it was 1969, technology was not like it was today. It was primitive at best back then. Dr. Boniuk didn't know if the tumor was malignant or benign. He would have to operate to know for sure. But there was a catch. He gave my mom two options. He could go behind the eye, thus saving it, and remove the tumor. But there would have been a chance of me being blind in both eyes by the age of 14. The other option was to take the eye out, remove all the tumor and I would have full sight in my left eye.
It was a heart wrenching decision. Mom chose the latter and my eye was removed. To this day, I still have a scar across the top of my head from ear to ear and a scar about 1/2 inch long near my right eye as well as a glass prosthetic eye.