back to the old house, part one

ive decided to start writing about my past. i dont know why. maybe just to get random memories out.
i will write it in parts, or sections of my life. the first section will be the beginning of my life.

i was born March 18th, 1977 in Yuma, Arizona. My mom was born in Texas and grew up in Farmington, New Mexico. how she came to Yuma i do not know. My father was born in Yuma.
his name is Hacksaw.
his real name is Manuel, but most people dont know his real name. he was the middle child of 13 or 14. his father was a Creek Indian, and his mother a Yaqui Indian. Yaqui is a tribe indigenous to Mexico, so when i saw im not mexican i guess thats a part lie.
My mom is white. like, really white. like... comes from a family named Smith from England, white.
my parents divorced when i was 2, and mom eventually met Thomas. they married when i was 4 at the courthouse, me being one of the witnesses.
we did quite a bit of moving around. i think we lived in 4 different cities betweeen my 4th and 6th birthdays. i think we lived in a place called Wickenburg, AZ. we lived in Visalia for a bit too. thats where my parents live now, and its where Thomas grew up.
ive told my earliest memories to my mom and she said i was between the ages of 2 and 4 when they happened. i remember living in an apartment next to two dudes, and one of them gave me a large Hulk action figure.
i remember there being an earthquake once, and my mom told me it was a dragon.
i remember Thomas coming home on one rainy night and standing in the doorway and lightening flash behind him, being scared to death.
i remember my mom sitting on the bed next to me, playing guitar and singing "puff the magic dragon to try and get me to sleep.
i remember sitting at the dinner table til i fell asleep because i wouldnt eat my meatloaf.

shortly before my 6th birthday we moved to Albuquerque, NM. my mom was pregnant with my brother, and we moved there to be closer to my grandma.
so much closer, in fact, that we all moved into her 1 bedroom house. my grandma and her 2nd husband, Bill, had just moved into an amazing house in the southwest valley of Albuquerque that sat on 1/2 an acre. it was a wonderland.
so i slept on a cot for a while, while my parents got their living situation down.
im not sure what order the new house and my new brother arrived in.
the new house was on a mostly dirt, dead end road about 2 miles from my grandma, and about a mile from the bridge over the Rio Grande that divides Albuquerque. the house was also a 1 bedroom. my bed and toychest were the only things that survived the move, and they were placed in the living room, while my parents and brother took the bedroom. eventually a living room was added on the back of the house and my brother and i took the bedroom, the old living room being converted into a bedroom. i could crawl through the former window to the outside world to get into my living room, which i usually did early saturday mornings to watch cartoons.
my brother's entrance into this world was a rough one.
an injury during birth caused Cerebral Palsy. Thomas Jeffery, or TJ was brought into the world in 1982. his coming changed and shaped my family in many ways. growing up with a developmentally disabled sibling is a trying experience. but it is one that gave my mother great strength and gave me great understanding and compassion towards people who are "different"
i attended a private school from kindergarten to 8th grade. and not a religious, uniform wearing private school. it was more of an academic, "progressive" school. Manzano Day School held me from k-5th. the classes were small and advanced.
in 6th grade i moved up to the Albuquerque Academy. it was 45 minutes away from my house, and i think about 5,000 dollars per year to go to. i had to get good grades to maintain a scholarship, much like a college. the Academy was a crazy world. we were smart. they were rich. the classes were challenging and engaging. in 7th grade, my classes included advanced spanish 3, geometry and Native American Studies. for my history class in 8th grade we had to study an ancient civilization, create artifacts, bury them, and the other classes dug up our civilization in a mock archeology dig to study us. the school owned a ranch in northern New Mexico that we made trips to periodically. i worked on a goat farm once for 3 days.
8th grade is a very important year, socially. i was just growing into my own, being the "poor" kid from the other side of town, but being invited to the "cool" parties and finally getting attention from girls.
then, my mom told me that we were moving to California because she got a new job.

thats where ill start next.