I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.
Jose Santos Salazar Jr.
I sometimes worry about using people's full names in my stories because I don't want drama from anyone but a few months ago I Googled a few names to see if they were still around or in jail ect...
When I googled this particular name I found an obituary and saw that he had passed away in 2013. I sent the link to my brother because I figured if I was interested he would be too and he was.
The picture the obituary used was really old because this is exactly how he looked when I knew him when I was 15/16 years old and he was my mom's boyfriend. I've talked about Jose before but not a lot. He got my mom using and hooked on PCP dipped cigarettes and cocaine. We were living in Hawthorne, California. I went to Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California. We lived very close to Compton, California. If you know California, you probably know this wasn't a great neighborhood to live. Maybe that's why my neighborhood now doesn't phase me all that much.
She went to jail for this and child neglect/abuse and spent 6 months in prison. That's when my brother and I went into foster care for a while.
Before he met my mom he had a motorcycle crash, according to him he was on the freeway going pretty fast and had an accident where he crashed. His helmet saved him from dying but he had quite a bit of brain damage. He won a $1 million dollar settlement after the accident. His mom was in charge of the money but gave him money whenever he wanted and he used it for drugs. He had an older brother, I believe his name was Raul who was in prison for something and got out in 1985.
Jose spent a lot of time at my house smoking pcp dipped cigarettes and using cocaine with my mom, and Uncle Jack and Aunt Wanda. My mom was so out of it most of the time she had no idea what was happening around her.
Jose would wait until my mom was passed out on a few occasions and he would try to climb in bed with me. Nothing ever happened because I would start yelling at him and he would leave. I told my mom but she accused me of leading him on if it happened which she told me he would never do. So me telling her went nowhere.
A couple of weeks before I turned 16 Jose's brother Raul (I believe his name was) came to our house and kept staring at me. When he found out from my mom that my birthday was coming up he kept saying he wanted to take me out that day for my birthday. This guy had just got out of prison and he looked like it. He gave me the creeps but thankfully I had a boyfriend who lived next door and I told Raul this, that I couldn't go out with him. He was mad. I told my boyfriend the next day and he told me that if the guy gave me any problems to let him know. My boyfriend was 22 years old and I was 15. Yes, I know the age difference was wild but I knew I could count on him. I told my boyfriend he was staring at me weird and gave me the creeps and he talked to Raul one day. Raul left me alone after that thankfully.
Because of the drugs my mom and Jose were arrested a bunch of times for different reasons. She would call me from jail and tell me to take care of my brother and she would be home in a few days. Jose always got them out with his money somehow. But I would sleep in the living room chair all night sitting by the phone waiting to hear from my mom. Not knowing if she would be back in a day or a few days because of the weekend. Sometimes I would call my grandma to come over because I was scared or because we needed food while we waited for my mom to get home. My grandma always came over.
My mom did finally leave him and get clean when she moved to West Virginia to live with her mom and step father. My brother and I moved there a few months later after having a horrible time living with our dad and step mother after we got out of foster care.
Jesus, mommy dearest was very nasty...
ReplyDelete54 isn't a very long life these days. I guess brain damage and drugs will do that.
ReplyDeleteYour boyfriend did a better job of watching our for you than your mother did. Some people just can't handle the responsibilities of being parents.