BJ Influenced my life - The Beginning

The Beginning

First Photo - 

me with grandpa peddicord( he died right after this photo)

Second: my sister and I ages 1 and 2.

Anne - 1981 - First Grade

Anne - 1982 - Second Grade

Anne  michelle and tricia 1983

Anne -1983 (3rd Grade)

Bon Jovi has influenced my life in so many ways, it’s hard to start. Bon Jovi and the song “Runaway” “No one heard a single word you said,They should have seen it  in your eyes,what going around your heart.”, These men are my personal heros, people I admire, and respect even as I approach the ripe age of 40.

I was 10 years old,  when Bon Jovi came to my rescue and became my refuge. Life was going pretty well until 1983. I wanted to be a cheerleader. My step-dad said absolutely no way. I didn’t even finish the question. I wanted to go to the tryouts. I was in the fourth grade at the time. Mom was at least willing to hear the details as to what would be involved. Since my step father, said “No way are you going to try out for cheerleading.” I said “Fine.  You are not my father!”  I wanted to ask dad, being a smart ass little kid. My step father said,  “If you want your father, then go live with him.  Either you let me adopt you or you will never see your mom or sister again.” I wanted to run away from home that night, after he said choose him, at that moment I hated him. I hated my life. My stepsister was mean. My stepsister,  when angry with my sister or myself,  she would chase us around the house with steak knives. She was 6 years old at the time.  At times, I was grateful to have to work at the store.  I wasn’t facing my stepsister’s hatred and jealously. I wanted to escape my life so badly, that I was running away from home. I had barricaded myself in my room, to protect myself from my stepsister. I grabbed my backpack, and  stuffed my jeans, T-shirt, PJ’s, my diary, my favorite teddy bear, and grabbed Leo the Lion.  I chose to live with mom and my step father. All contact with my father was severed in 1983. I turned the radio on, “Runaway” was playing on Q94,  Jettersville, Virginia.  I stopped packing my bag. I sat down in the middle of my bed, with my pal, Leo the lion, and just cried about how unfair life was. “Why I should have to choose?” I asked myself and I asked God. I distinctly remember hearing the words, “Daddy’s girl learned fast, all the things he couldn’t say” and I stopped.  I listened to the words of the song. That song scared me. I didn’t want to be that girl in the song. I didn’t want to be a person someone wrote songs about, or a statistic in the newspaper. I believe, Bon Jovi kept me from running away to start this tale.

This is me with my sister  Michelle, and my step sister, Patricia, Easter 1984.