Robert StGenis Voice empowered

I first started hearing about Atlanta as a child in the late early 1980s. Our neighbors in Michigan moved to some place called Dunwoody. A place I am quite familiar with now and imagine was significantly smaller back in the day. I recall they built a home and were overwhelmed with the amount of natural wood used inside on trim and such and the attention to detail the builder put into satisfying their desires. Mr. Riley proclaimed something like “if you don’t like the moldings, they just rip them out and start over” - I don’t think they would find that as easily to be the case today. They also might be scraping into Dunwoody now, not building a custom home from West Bloomfield today. West Bloomfield and Dunwoody are somewhat similar in both being more affluent suburbs. According to Zillow, however, the average home price in Dunwoody is $502,716 and West Bloomfield the average is $348,508.  While West Bloomfield definitely did grow from the time the Rileys left and when my family lef...

Designer jeans started to become a fad - which has evolved into a mainstay of American fashion to this day - starting around when I was in 3rd grade. Gloria Vanderbilt  was the pioneer of the industry, creating a line of denim jeans for women bearing her signature on the back right pocket and a swan on the front right pocket. The audience targer for these jeans were geared towards women, not girls. So people like my teachers and Mother. At this point, I don't think my Mother even owned a pair of denim anything. My Father had always looked at jeans as something for farm workers and other "laborers." Some of our teachers did get pairs, but to this point, the idea of jeans on a teacher at school was definitely not part of the dress code. I think Mrs. Edwards, our school Librarian, might have led the "charge for change" and been the first to take that leap and wear designer jeans to work. Keep in mind that women wearing pants was relatively new in the work pla...

Before or even after (in this case) this post, read  My First Text Book on how it is done . Before moving forward with my early pubescent stories with my buds, I should take a step back and give you at least the simple basics of how we all came 'together' initially. All of us had attended Green Elementary School and at this point were in 6th grade at Orchard Lake Middle School. Richie lived on the same street, Andy was two houses up on the adjacent street and David lived in the same subdivision. He was much closer to the middle school and far further from the elementary school where Richie, Andy and I had walked to daily. Richie was literally a few houses and a crossing guard away. Andy and I had a brief walk. My Mother picked our house in part so she could watch me through the kitchen window walk to school to give some reference. I don't honestly know if David did or not walk to Green. It seems a bit far at that age. But, it was a different era so parents were much more ...

My parents had a lot of really nice furniture. My Mother would leave a room empty for as long as 2 years to save for what she really wanted to own. She died with most of those "prized" pieces of furniture that became part of my home in childhood. Such a different era. My Dad had a cabinet in his den that in retrospect I kind of wish I had now. It was a really nice piece of furniture. The top and sides were I want to say dark walnut. The front had a door with a woven raised walnut (assuming I have the right wood) front between a 2-3" black/dark brown crossed pattern on each side. I think there was something hand-carved in the middle as well. It had one of those old locks with a key like from "Colonial" times yet there was nothing colonial about the piece. The television in the den sat on top of that cabinet, one more reason it was a focal point. Around 12, in sixth grade, I became scarily curious about most everything. What is under the TV I wondered?...

Like many a household, family dinner on Sunday evenings was a ritual for at least the entire time we lived in Michigan and somewhat so as I ended my teenage years and my parents' marriage came to its overdue inevitable end in New Jersey. It was one family activity my Father felt was important, albeit not all ended well. He traveled constantly, over 180 days a year he boasted at times. He wasn't into his marriage to my Mom, clearly evident from the 3 abortions he paid for with affairs he was having (which I learned just in recent years) and verbal and physical fights I witnessed over the years. He loved Christopher and me growing up as well as he knew how to but he has been quick to admit later in our lives he was never good with young children. That's an understatement as you'll learn reading this blog. Sunday dinners varied over time and, to a large extent, how my Father was doing financially. They were spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with calamari (where my Mother...

Jana was our next door neighbor. She was one of no less than 3 children and I want to say the youngest of them in her home. Their family had worked their way up to our neighborhood. We were always pleasant, genuinely neighborly, helping one another out when needed with rides to pick up a car at the shop, lending items, etc., but did not have much in common. The previous owner Mom was a friend of my Mother's and I remember she had a cool Mercury Cougar. They spent time together. I think my Mom and Mrs."B" might have been on the same bowling team, but that was about as coincidental as their living next door. Mrs. "B" wore polyester (weren't they called "double knit"?) pantsuits from JCPenny. My Mother had never been to one. My Mother shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bonwit Teller at the Somerset Mall.  I doubt she knew either store or where the mall was located. Mrs. "B" didn't care either; just as my Mother could have cared less about ...