I remember growing up very fast and my parents had lots of personal problems. My mother always seemed to be working somewhere. My mother divorced my father after my second sister and remarried a couple of years later. We had 2 more sisters by my new dad and he (Joe) turned out to be a better Dad to all of us.
Joe turned out to have an alcohol problem and in my early teens, my mother got another divorce. Since I was the oldest of 6 kids, I was always in charge and I learned to cook really well. I also learned to sew and iron but washing is not one of my better qualities, even to this day.
I started working at an early age just to try to help with family bills. I would keep enough to get to the next paycheck and give the rest to my mother. That didn't last long and at age 18, I felt I was ready for the big world & marriage. My family seemed to know better but I fought for the right and they gave in.
I met a woman 14 yrs my senior and thought I was in love. We lived together for about a year until we got married. I learned a lot from this woman, from antiques to auctions. I became a carpenter during this marriage and built many homes. She was very jealous of my family and she seemed to enjoy arguments a lot. My preference was to talk, so I would normally go do something until she could be calm enough to talk. I never seemed to mind the abusive things she did to me; I always felt I could heal very easily. One day she wanted to start an argument and she called my mother a whore. That was the very first time I ever wanted to hit a woman in my life and I knew then it was time to leave. For me, hitting a woman is not a possibility in my life time.
After that marriage, I wanted to do something on my own, so I became a Scuba Diver. I did so well on my 1st open water dive, my instructor asked if I wanted to learn to teach. I jumped at the chance. I was a carpenter by day and a diving instructor by night. It seemed like I had a girlfriend in every class. It grew very old very quickly and I really didn't enjoy having so many women in my life. I've only ever wanted just one.
I finally met one girl in a Scuba class that was very different from the rest. We talked for hours on end and I was quickly losing my interest in teaching diving. We moved in together after several months of dating and I quit teaching diving because of all the women and the poor pay. I went back into construction but framing was very seasonal and after my second winter off, we decided to get married before work started back up. We were only married a month and my wife withdrew all the money in the bank and took off. I thought I knew her after living with her for a year and a half. I was very wrong. It took almost 6 months of living with my mother again to payoff the guys that were working for me at the time. I felt I'd learned a big lesson by then and just stayed single for some time after that.
My life went through many changes after that, but I was always working hard and always working more than one job. I started bartending at night just for something to do and I met my 3rd wife on the job. She was a nurse and out with her friends when she decided to try to pick me up. I was easy, because I was lonely at the time and looking for more to life. All of my friends were happily married and raising children. I was just turning 30 and nothing to show for it. I don't ever remember asking this woman to marry me but it happened anyway. I do remember her and her mother asking me when I wanted to have the wedding. My reply was for mid-May and I was turned down very quickly. We married in February and on July 4th of the same year we knew it was over. I remember her saying if we had only waited until the date that I had wanted, it never would of happened. I was very quick to agree by then. She hated my work & the men that worked, for me but she loved to spend the money until I cut her spending off. She had every credit card to its limit and her full time job as a nurse couldn't payoff her balances, even if every penny she made for two years went to pay off the her credit cards. Residential construction started to taper off and I had to seek commercial construction, which I hated.
I started to build apartments and built for a Chinese group who later burned me big time. I looked back on 11 years in the construction business and decided to seek another career. I looked at sales and found social introduction (a dating service basically) and I met my 4th wife. We spent a year getting to know each other and during that time, I became an Insurance agent. I did well at it, as I had my other jobs and we married after another year. In fact, I opened my own insurace agency, bought a historic home in Glendora, and married her all within 30 days. It was a major commitment to life at its fullest moment and it wasn't something I was prepared to do by myself. It would have taken everyone's effort to keep it together and I felt I was the only one willing to do the work. After 11 months, the marriage fell apart because I was always working and communications between us became minimum. We had to bring in a large sum every month to make ends meet and it took every bit of spare time I had to do it. She enjoyed going to the city parties and events, but the weekends she wanted to relax and play. I was so busy trying to earn a living for us and one day I returned to an empty house one day.
I continued in the Insurance business a few more years until I met a girl who had a computer in her front room. That launched my career into computers.
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