This is the early version of TenaciousM. Still don’t know why Nana (Dad’s Mother) called me “the devil” and refused to babysit till I got over that pyromania phase… Is that not the tallest 2 year old you have ever seen?

I was hanging out with Mama Ocia and Aunt Delores (my Mom’s Mother and sister) in Cedar Grove, TX near the town of Newton. I think I’m dressed for the family Homecoming which is in August, so I was almost 3. I know, it’s crazy that my memory goes back that far, but the spankings I got on the regular served as a sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to jolt my memory at an early age. (Here’s where all the anti-corporal punishment folks need to take a seat. I was one bad ass kid… my peeps did what they had to do).

What’s even funnier is that this was the visit when my Aunt Dee had to explain the “Birds and the Bees” to me. I had asked where I’d come from and she said I was an egg in my mother’s womb. I thought she said “my mother’s room”, and was shocked. I told Aunt Dee that seemed dangerous and that Ceal and Barry (my older sister and brother) could have easily come along and broken me.

Alas, a writer was born! -Marcia AKA: TenaciousM

…still a little naughty. That crown was on my friend’s birthday cake.