Ally C.
My Story: Wow, here goes; At thirteen my mother sent me off on a summer vacation to Hawaii. Along with my dog Bandit and one-hundred-twelve dollars for her quarantine. A back backpack, surfboard, and twenty dollars in spending money I landed on the island. However there was no one to meet me as she said there would be, much less someone I could speak about the “quarantine.” So I hitchhiked to Waikiki and spent the next few months going from commune to commune; (this was the late sixties after all). Primarily I would stay with the “Jesus Freak” movement because they would feed peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. The other days the Hare Krishna movement of which fed us on occasion.
The “Readers Digest” version of this story is; my parents didn’t want me, and quite frankly I didn’t care either. At seventeen I arrested for possession of marijuana on the island and was sent back to California. As part of my sentencing I was on inmate fire crew.
Well fast forward to 2009 as the official were placing the five bugles on my collar signifying my promotion to Fire Department Division Chief. A women said she would like to see a copy of my high school diploma. I looked at her blankly and said; So would I ?
