THE PLAN STARTED JANUARY 21, 1946

The plan started on the 21st of January

I always felt I was meant to be here. Now I know I was right. I was born in the dead of a January day. My father drove my mother to the Allegheny General Hospital and if he had stopped for one more red light. I would have pushed my way into the world in the back seat of a 41 Ford. My childhood normal and full of fun. I lived with my parents and my older sister. She was six years older than me. On my first day of school at five years old, my little sister came into the world. My whole world sank My grandmother came to stay with us. She watched us, cooked dinner, and got us off to school. That was the first time I felt a strong streak of rebelliousness. My grandmother had no idea of our regular routine. She dressed me in a dress that was way to small...I argued and cried my way to the school bus. I was only 5 years old when I started first grade. I had convinced myself it was because my mother had a new baby now...and she wanted rid of me. The first day of school when the bell rang to go to the bus...I exited the door of my first grade and was trampled by herds of older kids..They knocked me down and dragged me down the hall. I had black eyes, and bumps but survived. Our grade school was in session with the middle school, so most of the people in the school were taller. I was very small, even the smallest in first grade. I made it through that and hated my little sister, I used to pinch her hard she would cry and I would say I did nothing. I watched my mother breast feed her and the hatred grew in my heart. I was a very curious child as well as an adult...but then it got me in a lot of trouble. I walked on wire clothes lines to walking right through wet cement that was just poured and finished...I jumped off of roofs of cars thinking I could defy gravity with a towel around my neck pinned on with a safety pin. I swallowed pennies, and windshield nuts that my father asked me hold. It just seemed trouble would always find me...and I was always willing to obey it.