Soon after my mother married my stepfather there was a serious fire shortly after xmas, maybe a few months. I can recall watching t.v. with my brother around 5:00 pm, then we played street hockey down in the basement. Soon thereafter we noticed smoke coming from upstairs. Back then I can say we did not know what to do. We then came back upstairs and tried to call our mother but the phone was'nt working. So we tried to go upstairs but the smoke was to much. We just hollered as loud as we could to our stepfather, calling him and calling him from the botttom of the stairs until we were horsed. He finally came downstairs and I asked him "is there a fire?" And he said "yes, get out of the house". I remember his arm was bleeding (forearm) as he came down the steps. Well when came out of the house the neighbors were already out there and they called the fire department. As we were walked across the street I looked up and saw the window just shatter loudly as the flames burst through with force and heat. As we sat down waiting for mom to come home they (the neighbors) just tried to keep me and my brother calm. When my mother arrived they assured her that we were okay, and so was my stepfather. I do remember very clearly that when someone mentioned something in reference to the fire I said "but he said he was not smoking". I remember my mom looking at me and tighting up her lips as if to say "don't say that". But I did'nt know what was going on, I just responded to what the conversation was all about. Well we survived that and had the house renovated and although we lost a lot material things, we were still here on this earth. We (me and my brother) had just gotten new stereo's for xmas and I had just gotten a new Stevie Wonder album with a song on it that I loved called "I wanna talk to you". On that song he had some type of synthesizer that made his voice sound funny in different verses. But it was replaced a couple of years later.

I recall a trip (car) to Cleveland to see relatives, and trips to Atlantic city to see the man change into a gorilla and bust out of the bars after us, it looked so real. But there was a dark side to this stepfather, which in my eyes was not addressed, and or was denied for a long time. He was an alcoholic. Don't be misunderstood, there are definitely good times including home movies and parties, but it was soon marred by a drinking problem that would progress into something that I will never forget.