"When men greet each other, they insult each other but they don't really mean it. When woman greet each other, they compliment each other but they don't really mean it."
- Anonymous
This is my story. Except for the occasional flights of fancy, it is all true. It is the story of growing up in a large, poor, dysfunctional Catholic family. I describe in detail the abuse by my cruel, mentally ill parents. I tell of my bizarre neighbors, ten years of Catholic schools, where I was subjected to brainwashing and brutality by Catholic nuns, brothers and priests.
I describe my youth in Long Beach, CA, and the amazing friends I made there. I tell of brutal cops, of drunken brawls, of cruising and raising hell, of many brushes with death. I describe in detail the inhuman brutality of the Marine Corps as they forged a boy into a man. It is a detailed, graphic journey through the horror of the Vietnam War, where 90% of my unit were either killed or wounded fighting the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.
I describe how I met my Korean 'Mail Order Bride' and our happy forty year marriage. It tells of my forty year struggle with PTSD and how I finally overcame it. It is also a story of surviving the Feminist’s fifty year war against men and their children. It is a tale of utter desolation, and ultimate redemption. Lastly, it harks back to my inevitable loss of innocence, back when dreams were still possibilities, back when I was literally eighteen with a bullet. I hope you enjoy my journey.
When did the American dream become a nightmare? For me it began shortly after I was born. For the next 21 years, I was dragged across the barnacled underbelly of the American Dream until my mind was shredded. Worked over by mentally ill parents in their personal insane asylum......
...dragged from pillar to post by the Catholic Church, worked almost to death in sweat shops, and finally beaten and brainwashed into a merciless killing machine by the US Marine Corps. I was then condemned to serve a year in the Killing Fields of Viet Nam, somehow managed to survive....
....and they shipped back what was left of me to California and cut me loose with nary a fare-thee-well. The only thing I had going for me back in California was that I had nowhere to go but up. So I started digging myself out of the grave they dug for me. I clawed and scratched my way to the surface. Then I went to work.
Traveling has been good for me. I found the Holy Grail in Vietnam, the Promised Land in Taiwan, and the spawn of Aphrodite in Russia. I discovered the Land of the Lotus Eaters in Amsterdam and modern day Babylon in Bangkok. The flesh pots of Latin America graciously yielded their treasures to me. Their message was clear, “I am here for you, Steve, whenever you need me.”
"When men greet each other, they insult each other but they don't really mean it. When woman greet each other, they compliment each other but they don't really mean it."
- Anonymous
