But what about Me?

mybike
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

One of my avid readers suggested that I get more personal on my blog since there are a blue million weirdos doing conspiracy, so here goes:

I was born and raised in Indiana by a couple of hippies. My dad is a Vietnam vet and was more of a biker/CB enthusiast, my mom was a mural artist (Mutha Murals) that painted anything that moved (dad did the body work).

We were pretty poor and had the worst house on the block. It was kind of a subdivision, tract housing kind of far away from the downtown area, and most of the neighbors were either upwardly mobile or retirees.

Well, my parents had all of these unsavory people (the clientele) going in & out of the house, motorcycles and an old, dead mercedes sitting in the lawn, wildly bedecked custom vans, and more than one crazy party. This was in the 70's, so one can probably imagine what was going on at those kind of shin-digs (I may elaborate at a later time, but for now I'll be discreet).

With this kind of traffic coming through, I had access to ideas & walks-of-life to which few kids get exposed. They were all pretty fringe characters that colored outside the lines and so opted to talk to me in a frank manner befitting an equal.

This coupled with my parents' honesty about the workings of the world gave me the perspective that is echoed here, so much later in my life. My dad had a lot to say about the gov't, having been given the short end of the stick like most of the vets of that era, and my mom had alternative views on America that eventually lead her to fight the corrupt Florida elections office in the 90's (she didn't buckle like a lot of faux-hippies that went coporate).

But here I am getting political again...I'll end on a high note by saying that I'm named after an A.A. Milne character. I'm Kristofer Robin from Winnie-the-Pooh. I know, it's painfully cute.