RUN JOEY RUN

"RUN JOEY RUN" was the coolest song in the world to me when I was 7 years old. Because my name is Joey. I had no idea the song was about teenage love, pregnancy and a father shooting his daughter by accident, all I knew was it was a song with my name. I ran away from home at the age of three. Mom had spanked me for eating her flowers in the front yard, it was just something I liked to do and I was apparantly pissed about the spanking and the minute her back was turned, I was gone. Now we lived on a U. S. Marine base in North Carolina, very large and very busy but imagine, I'm three yrs old for Gods sake! I walked thru major intersections, crosswalks and managed somehow to find my way to the bowling alley 3 miles from my house. Dad would take Mom, my two older brothers and I there whenever he was trying to make up with Mom after screwing up with either booze, women or beating the hell out of her, all three of which happened alot.

So here I was in the bowling alley, Saturday afternoon walking around like I knew what I was doing. There was a bar counter where they sold food, so I headed right for it. Climbed up on a bar stool and just looked around for a couple of minutes. There weren't may people there and only a couple of the lanes were being used. The barteneder fellow had been looking at me kinda funny, walked up asked me my name. I told him Joey. He asked me several other questions that I really don't recall, but when he asked if I wanted an ice cream cone, I said Yes Sir!! Being polite was mandatory in my family, it's a southern thing I believe. Here comes my ice cream cone, my life couldnt have been better at the momment. I had not thought one time about going home or what I was going to do after my ice cream was gone, I was living in the moment! I'm not sure how long I had been there, but I know I was knee deep in that ice cream cone when these 2 marine MP's walked up. I knew they had uniforms on like my dad wore but the difference was the big guns they were wearing. One sat on either side of me at the counter, took off their hats and starting talking to me. Everybody wants to know my name, I kinda like all the attention. I'm a single 3 year old out on the town, eating ice cream and chatting with guys with guns.

Somehwhere close to the end of my ice cream one of the marines ask me if I would like to see their police truck with sirens, and that was all it took to get me off that stool and outside. Real sirens? This is huge! They help me up in the truck, I scoot in the middle and they tell me we're going for a ride, and I can play the siren while we ride down the road. It's 1968 and I'm a kid, 911 didn't exist and the world was a lot safer I'm sure and come on they had guns what could be unsafe about this. Well down the road we go, the three of us. I'm wearing one of the marines hats, eating whats left of the ice cream cone and things are looking very familiar, wait a minute... this is my road, these guys know where I live and their taking me HOME!!! Oh no, Moms at home this won't be good, and it wasn't. There's my mother standing on the sidewalk in front of the house as we pull up, the siren stops and moms reaching in the window after me, she pulls me out and hugs me. This ain't so bad, she's happy to see me right? Right. But then she put's me on the ground and starts whipping the shit out of me right there in front of my new friends and tells me to never ever leave this house without her again or she would tell my father. The marines with the guns just sat there in their cool truck and smiled as my Mom gave me what I had coming.

That spring I stopped eating flowers.