Munro
The Childhood Years
by James Michael Munro
 

I was born June 17, 1961 in Furth Byron, West Germany by my mother Anna Marie Massow. She gave me up for adoption in 1961 and I was placed in an orphinage until 1963 when I was adopted by a couple by the name of Leighn Douglas Munro and his wife of Evon Munro. They were from St. Clair Michigan. As I was growing up I lived with my grandmother and my mom while my dad was in vietnam, during those years I had a rough life.

I attended St. Clair Elementry School, while in class, I had a learning problem and I could not sit still in class so I had to be removed from class by my teacher.

The school called my mother and told her that I needed to be placed in special education school. SO that year I was placed in that type of school.

My first day of class in that school my teacher Jan Scheerhorn told me her dad gave her that radio I was looking at in the classroom but she could not get it to work and she had radio repairmen come out to try to fix it but they could not get it to work so I told her let me look at it, after messing around in the back of the radio I hooked up the wires and for some reason it came on and the radio started playing. She was shocked and happy.

Well as the years went on as I was growing up and still attending special education classes with Jan and my first brush with the law was when I took my sisters car for a ride and I ran out of gas.

The Michigan State Police pulled over and arrested me and took me to the police station and called my parents. When they arrived I was taken to Juvenile hall for kids and I spent 6 months there.

I was released and I went back home, after that my dad started treating me real bad, we had went to the movies one night being a family and when we got home we pulled in to the garage. As the door opened he spoted a cord leading under his new car that was in the garage, he pulled it out and it was his sodering gun, he looked at me and started to beat me in the face and stomich before I could defend myself, I told him I did not do it it must have been those kids that go into garages and steal everyones stuff if you remember.

Well he told me to go to my room so that night I decided to run away, I had just turned 16 and I said enough is enough. So I took all the money I could find in the house and I ran away. From that day on I never went back, my life had gotten worse and I didn't even know it.

I remember going to school and when I got home kids were there waiting for all us on that special education school bus so they could have their fun beating us up.

I remember my last day at home, I was laying in the yard and my mom came up to me and asked me what I was doing, because it looked like she was worried, so I told her I was jut getting some sun and I will be ok, little did she know that I was waiting for her to go to work so I could pack my bags and leave home forever.

After she left I sat down at the table and wrote them a letter to let them know that I was sorry for everything in the past and that it was best that I just leave.

They called the police but they could not find me, so I still continued to hit the road and I was on my way to California.

As I was on the road hitch-hiking I stoped at a motel one night, I had just layed down when I heard scraching on the door. I opened teh door and I saw a little black puppy, he came in and he looked cold and hungry, so I went across the street and got a can of dog food, when I got back he at the whole can. He was happy because he looked at me real funny and I thought why is this dog looking at me like that, it was like he said thank you for saving my life, as I picked him up I noticed he had a few ticks in his furr so I called the motel manager and he came over to help me, we got the ticks out of the puppy and he got even more happy.

That night we slept ok and the next morning we hit the road again. As I was walking with my dog, I noticed he walked by my side and when cars went by he would run and hide in the ditch, that told me that he must have been hit by a car so I continued to walk and when it was clear he looked up to see where I was and I called him and he ran to catch up to me. It was so cool, his little ears were flapping in the wind as he was running.

When we went into restraunts, it was no pets allowed, but for some reason everyone loved my god. He was cute looking, he looked like a chihuahua with big ears.

I was running out of money and it was christmas morning. I just arrived in a small town, as I was walking I saw a small kid playing in her yard, I went up to her and I told her to go get her dad or mom so she did and they both came out, I told her dad hay Can I talk to you both for a minute, they said ya, whats up so I told them, hay this is my dog, I am runing out of money to feed it so I want to give him to a good home. Can I give it to your little girl for christmas. He was shocked and happy because he told me he was planning on getting her one later on so I went up to her and gave her my puppy, I told her here you go, here is a puppy for you, the puppy played with her and they told me hay you want to come in for a cup of coffee or something, I told them ya, thats cool so I went in and had a cup of coffee.

The father kept looking at me and looking at my clothing I told him ya, I look bad don't I, he said hay don't you got a place to stay, I told him no, I am 16 and I left home, he told me how long has it been sence you had food and slept so I told him, 3 days so he told me your going to eat here and I told him no thanks and his wife told me I'll fix you something to eat, so I said ok, I got food in my stomach and a cup of coffee and I told them hay, I got to get back on the road, he asked where I was going and I told him I was wandering around the country maybe I'll go to California, so I got up and left.

I hit the road again and started traveling around, I finally arrived in California, it was February 1979 and I did not know anything about California so I was a drifter, I ate at the missons and slept in cardboard boxes at night. During the day I tried to get work but because of not having any skills or education I got no jobs except washing dishes and pumping gas.

Throughout that year things were okay until I went back to my home state of Michigan, when I got back I stayed with one of my friends and his parents until I decided to come back to California.