Entropy of a Good Girl- Prologue

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep.” That is how it all started.
I was a little girl. The apple of my Daddy’s eye and my mother. The most Godly woman I ever would know save her own mother. My parents were young. They worked really hard. My mother worked in some office somewhere, I think it was a mortgage company and my daddy, despite his grand dreams, worked where they would hire him.
My parents found a lady, holiness to say the least, who kept me while my parents worked around the clock. The memories that stand out from that time are daddy’s acudamunde, some exotic animal that my mother protested against. I remember my mama picking me up late at Mama Lois’s house with exhaustion on her face. The woman they left me with, Lois, Mama Lois I lovingly called her because I spent more time with her than with anyone else during that time.

Lois was a godly woman. Being a preachers wife of a very holiness backwoods country church and raisin two children of her own, she had a most patient attitude with me. The memories are of cottage cheese and honey tea and music. Oh the Music…

My mama and Daddy were into music as well. They traveled around with groups that aren't even remembered today. My mama spread out a blanket beneath the church pews for me to “crash” on during their concerts. Everything around me was of god and music was the vehicle. Mama told me that I was very intelligent very early. I always had an extensive vocabulary since I began to talk. My mother would sit me on the floor in the bathroom and would have conversations with me while she was in the bath. Singing my version of “Blessed Assurance” to the top of my lungs.

Actual lyrics: “Praising my Savior, all the day long”
My version: “Praising my SHAVER, all the day long”

It was my favorite song as a child.

Mama would wake in the mornings singing, “ The Joy of the Lord, Is my Strength,” and she would get me ready for the day. Soon, sooner than I really wanted, my mama was going to have another baby/ I remember her belly getting bigger and bigger. I didn't know what this really meant for me. Until then, I had four years of bliss being the center of everyone’s attention. When my sister Andrea, Oni as I called her, was born. It was to me like a very special toy. A doll that lived and breathed. I loved her very much until she began to get a little older. She took away my mommy and daddy and I wasn't happy with that at all. But as our family continued to grow with Angela, Nay, being born less than two years later. My parents love for both music and God continued.

My parents attended a charismatic church and during the 70’s were very into the Azusa street movement. They “witnessed” “God’s power” all the time. Every time the door to the church were opened, you can set your watch, my family was there. And not just there, we were involved!

It was not long before my family found their church home, “The Tabernacle”. My father was involved with the orchestra, he played keyboard and trumpet, and my mama did the choir thing. Soon, they became close friends with the Youth Pastor and helped with the youth band, who by all accounts was the best around. This put us at the church most every night of the week. We, my sisters and I were eager to go. Our lives were busy but full. One of the things drilled into my head was, “The lord inhabits the praises of his people” and god did seem to inhabit each and every corner of my families lives.

My parents found a house near where the church was to build its new building. I remember that later, we walked the 57 acre property thru the back woods of our house it was that close.

When it was time for me to start school, I went to a public school, Atherton Elementary. I was apparently too smart for my teacher to handle. I was far ahead of anyone else in the class, so much so in fact, that I would finish all of my assigned work far ahead of anyone else. My vocabulary was that of a high schooler and the conversations between me and my teacher seemed to only irritate her. My mother and father decided to pull me from that public school and put me in a program at a nearby charismatic christian school. My behavior had deteriorated due to lack of stimulation and the bridges were being rebuilt. Still most nights there was some activity of some sort at the church. Our home was a godly one and my mama aimed to keep it that way.