We moved but we still stayed in Iowa.

Nothing much more happened in Sioux City and we moved to Denison Iowa. We didn't live there long and I didn't like it at all. Lol, lost my virginity there tho, at least what was left of it. That's for another day.

We lived in a large two bedroom apt over a bar and one of the rooms was huge so it was divided with a curtain and made into two bedrooms. So that meant once again I didn't have to share with anyone. That was a good thing.

My sister was getting brattier as she got older but I was still mostly responsible for her, whether I liked it or not. Lol, at this point she didn't like it any better than I did.

There wasn't a hell of a lot to do there. We lived right on main street and the courthouse was right across the street. So that's where I played. On the courthouse lawn. I also played a lot on the railroad tracks.

That's when I found a mountain of pop bottles. All cased and right out in the open but away from town. Now I know why they were there but at the time I didn't. I just knew they were going to be easier than hell to steal. They were there because they were the old style bottles and new ones were being used.

The first thing I had to do was to find something I could haul the cases of empty bottles in. That problem was easily solved by stealing some kids wagon one night. I hid it out by the bottle mountain. I could haul two cases with no problem and three if I was careful.

With the case they were worth a $1.50 and that was big bucks back then. Then I turned some of them in at the bar we lived over and some at a gas station and another at a grocery store. I managed to get at least 3 cases per week, if not more, for a few months and then the places stopped taking them.

That was my first experience being put out of business by something new and improved. That was quite depressing at the time. Then I got a paper route. Argh, I hated that. Getting up that early in the morning just wasn't something I was interested in. Freaking Sunday papers were really heavy too. I don't think I'll ever forget that. Yes, I had a 7 day a week route.

Delivering papers didn't pay much back then but it did teach me another thing. Some people thought they didn't have to pay for the paper and would pretend not to be at home when I came to collect. Yes, the paperboy actually had to go collect the money. It wasn't paid to the paper.

Back then paper boys were subcontractors. We were responsible for getting everyone to pay us and we had to pay our bill for the papers every week. Some weeks it was really depressing as not enough people would pay me so I could pay my bill. I learned a lot on that job too.

Soon something would happen that would be a life changing event and cost me a lot of money in the coming months. Depression would be forgotten for all of those months too. ;)