Chapter 1: A Short Trip
The notion of coming to the big city must have sprouted when I was a mere weed of six or seven and altogether too young to do anything immediate or practical about it. I like believing that I know exactly how this notion took root and how it grew into full bloom in spite of various stubborn and yet natural obstacles.
My story begins when the world was a town named Chula Vista, a place especially designed for kids to stub their toes on. Here in Chula Vista, California, a few miles above the border of Mexico, I remember discovering that I was alive and free - to a certain extent.
Life in those days seemed to consist solely of freckles, pepper trees, and a woman named Mrs. Blass. More than anything else her presence became the inevitable obstacle standing in the way of complete freedom…
