It’s my life…
Born in 1964 in Cold Lake, Alberta Canada
I was the sixth son born to RJ and Hope whom were both in the Royal Canadian armed forces after I was born, they moved to Edmonton Alberta and eight of us lived in a 3 bedroom basement suite of RJ’s parents place on the south side.
RJ couldn’t or wouldn’t hold a job even when he did he would get drunk and gamble his paychecks away with his work mates, living on condiments is not a great way to live, nor raiding other neighborhood gardens.
Mama Hope had enough of RJ’s shenanigans and seperated from RJ moving to the northside town homes with her six boys, in 1975 the oldest boy Ray who had just turned 19 a month before was shot and killed outside Kingsway bar for breaking up a fight.
Life seemed harsh and cruel during the 70’s and 80’s there was a lot of negativity and not much hope, the bottom fell out of Alberta in the early 80’s interest rates soared to over 19% people lost there dream homes and jobs.
I was just lost in another head space holding on to whatever jobs I can get, I became a drug dealer at 15/16 and then got busted by the time I was 17, doing weekends in jail because it was my first offence and finished my weekends the morning of my 18th birthday
I had no ideas what to do for a career, options were limited I went to John Casablancas for makeup artistry, and was in pursuit of going to California to Rick Bakers special effects makeup I was denied going by the Canadian government and also I had a criminal record now.
Still doing multiple odd jobs and selling myself to get private contracts for art posters for bars, hair salons and other businesses but still unable to make any good cash, I drove taxi cab but at best you’d still only make around $10/hr plus pay for your other expenses along the way.
I finally landed a great job in Northern Ontario at a gold mine, I was the surface maintenance guy and the liaison to work along the safety supervisor, that lasted 8 weeks after a night of having drinks in the bull cooks room we had a little tussle and I was sent home packing, after a 3 day bus ride back to the west, mama Hope told me the City of Edmonton had called ready to hire me , I returned the call to see if the job was still available, she said let me check, and long story short I ended up at Victoria Golf Course for 20 years .
By 1997 I was getting married to Crystal and within a short period we would have 5 beautiful children ( Calum, Isaiah, Levi, Aliyah and Arizona) unable to raise my young family on the golf course wage, I joined the operating engineers local 955 and began working in the oil industry in 2008.
In 2022 upon putting together my book Fast Lane in a 97st pool hall I was driving home from Fort McMurray Alberta and as I was driving on the highway just after Boyle I hit a moose and she came into the vehicle with me and head butted me in the face, two months later I was developing stroke like conditions, I had a slow brain bleed and the blood was pooling onto the left side of my brain, I then required emergency surgery to repair the brain bleed, they drained the blood and cauterized the affected area.
The delay set my book back from being published but was released at the beginning of 2024.
