Flennoy O Flippen Sr (Flennoy O Flippen)

I was born in Centralia. Illinois raised in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and now live in LA. CA. Now how is that for a start. Allmost like saying 'Once Upon A Time'. My thing is I hold great pride in the place I was born. Three Gen. grow up there. But to know how I came to be me has a longer winded road of ups and ups some more. You see when you look at things like what I see you come to understand that if you make it through the other side you have been lifted higher and thus Ups And Ups. You can never go wrong if you allow life to teach you how to be better. So I took being in a foster home as a chance to see what growth that I could go through. Hard times where times of growth. Hurting times took their place too. Joy, now joy had a way of just sticking to me and I think I know why. When I was around five years old we had a realy big snow and we had a Pot Belly stove that we had to stoke. To 'stoke is to move the wood or cools around to keep them burning. Well my mom went out back of get more wood and I felt it was time to get something in my belly. So I got up to make me a PBJ whille I had the kitchen to my self. Well we had that stove with the gridel pleat and it was just the right size for me to sit while I made my sandwich and I could stay worm because mom had turned on the gas stove. As I was half way through the making of said sandwich I could see that it was getting lighter and lighter behind me. I felt that this was a little odd because I knew tha the sun came up through the window that was in frount of me. Needless to say I was on fire. I ran through the house and on my secound trip to the front my mother came in from out side and draged me to the floor. Okay I am still here and I am sixty years old. So I guess you can say that if you go through the fire and come out the other side you have been changed and hopefully for the better. I was out for six mounths and when I came to the first people I saw was mom and grandma. I can truly say that the felling of being loved has stayed with my all the days of my life. Just like that love that I felt is what I am about. I want to write a poem or a play or a story that one would say that this is made for me and if I wrote it I hope that no matter who see or read it will feel that it was ment to speak to them. NOW THAT IS WHO I AM.