My name is Christopher Michael Redmon. I was born on July 11, 1972 in Orlando, Fl. I was born in ORMC. The time I was concieved as 12:31 pm AND WEIGHT. My parents are Patrica Gail Redmon and Larry James Redmon, we lived in Orlando on Hampton Street. I do not ever recall living at Hampton Street, we moved to 7222 Harwick Dr on the outskirts of Orlando.
I remember living here, it was a single family home, two bedroom, one bath, 792 square feet, block home. My bedroom was in the back of the house. My father drove a 1972 red Ford Mustang and at the time, we only owned one vehicle. My father worked for Orlando Armature Works in downtown Orlando and my mother was a stay at home mom, she finally got a job at Plaza Square in Apopka.
I remember attending school at Ivey Lane Elementary, that only lasted about a week. My mother pulled me out of there and enrolled me into Rolling Hills Elementary. I loved this school and Ms. White, bless her soul, was one of nicest teachers you ever wanted to have as a student. I remember her favorite trinket was these collectible sewing thimbles, I bought her a few throughout the years. My mother and I even visited her outside of school when we moved to Apopka.
I remember my father lost his patience with teaching me how to ride a bike, I had training wheels and all but I just could not get it down. My mother, would take me every day and hold the back of the seat and run with me until I got the hang of it. Then one day, she removed the training wheels and helped me until she one time let go, I remember the joy of riding alone until I looked back to smile at my mother and crashed.
My mother had some patience. She taught me how to fly kites in the woods behind our house. We would go buy these kites and add extra string and run down the makeshift dirt road and let them soar. The fun we had.
I had a couple of friends, one was named Larry or Lil Larry and my first crush was Vicky, she lived across the street. She was blond and so very pretty, she one day moved out of the state. I never saw her again.
We had a dog named Sampson that was a Husky, he loved to climb the fence and one night, he climbed over and never returned home. I was very sad. I do not recall how we got our next two dogs, Marco a Pomeranian and Murphy a Collie. I loved these two dogs. I remember when Marco died, I was told one story about him being used in a movie in "Hollywood" and died there. But I found out later that was to protect him from how he really died. To this day, I still do not know the truth behind his death.
Murphy made the move with us to Apopka. We moved to 1015 S. Apopka Blvd. It was a single family home with three bedrooms, one bath, 960 square feet. It had a huge tree in the front yard with a tire swing hanging from it and the yard was very big. Our church was right across the street from us, Southside Baptist Church. We had family that attended here, my fathers brothers and family, they lived in Lake County. I was somewhat close to my fathers side of the family. He had three brothers, two had kids, so I had a few cousins close growing up. The first day of moving in, I met my soon to be, best friend, Earl Sande.I attended Lovell Elementary, Apopka Blvd. divided schools, Earl went to Phyllis Wheatley Elementary. This is something, I grew to hate. We did not go to school together but we dealt with it. I loved Lovell Elementary and I graduated from there, just barely....
Soon we got another dog, Pitbull named Bruton, my father named him from the snuff he dipped. Murphy and Bruton did not always get along, they fought. Murphy was my protector, he never let people harm me. I remember one day, this kid named Chris was picking on me, Murphy always ran around and played with us. This day, Murphy did not stand for Chris picking on me and growled and chased him all the way home. One day, Murphy roamed away from the house and was never seen again. Someone local took him one night, we heard his bark but could never find where it was coming from. Soon, he was replaced by a Rottweiler named Thunder.
The middle of my sixth grade year at Lovell, my parents started to argue every night. I started to make myself sick while in school. I was suffering a backlash from my parents fighting. Finally, my mother met with a counselor by the name of Mrs. Baker. She agreed to meet with me in the mornings until school started, to work with me. I did not know there was a problem that deep with me but there was and she helped. I did graduated from there and the summer following, my parents divorced.
This was a huge mess for me. We left my father one night and stayed with my mothers parents. We shortly packed all our belongings and moved in with them. We moved to 1612 Cloverlawn Ave. in Orlando. It was a single family two story home, three bedroom, one bath. 1,401 square feet. We moved into the second story part of the house, it was split into two rooms. My mom had her own room and so did I. It was hard for me but shortly I just adapted with the help of my other best friend, Mark Becton. He lived one house over from me, we both attended Howard Junior High School. We were a team of pure trouble. I became a shadow to Mark and we got into everything but kept me grounded. I lost my uncle during this time to a drunk driver. I really wasn't close to him because they lived far from us. My first funeral, I was not a real part of that side, so I felt out of place when I attended. After all the divorce stuff happened, I went to visit my father every other weekend.
This was not fun, I learned that Earl had a new best friend and began ditching me for him, Arty Young. My dad was rebounding around this time, from night clubs to bars, each weekend I was there but he really wasn't and sometimes, neither was Earl. I almost started to hate these visits. Shortly, after I told my mother about not wanting to go there on weekends. Arty and I became friends over one weekend. This changed the whole dynamics of visiting my father plus more trouble for me. Bruton passed whiled I was living in Orlando. My father was done with dogs, so he said.
I was a trouble maker on both sides of town. We just looked for mischief and found it every single time. I would follow Mark in Orlando and Earl/Arty would follow me in Apopka. I learned to be bad from Mark, I took much blame for all the hell that Mark raised then I carried to Apopka, others took the blame there. I would see my cousins every now and then. I never really got close to them until later on in life. I had my first girlfriend in Orlando, Tina Williams. She was a cute blond cheerleader for our school, she was my first real love. But that only lasted so long, she found out I was moving and we started to have problems. I was really becoming so bad living here and then we moved.
My mother and I moved into our own place, back on Hampton Street, the street I lived when I born. This was shorted lived due to Mark and me, we got use kicked out due to that Daisy B.B. Gun. We shot up the landlords car in the backyard. We ended up moving back to my grandparents house. Then we ended up moving into my mothers boyfriend's house. I was very bad and got in trouble, I had to start working with my mother after school at her job. Quimby's Auto Service. Living with my mother's boyfriend did not last long either, so we moved back to the grandparents again. I loved my grandparents and their house. I was spoiled there but never really respected that aspect until I was on the way back to my dads due to Mark keeping me in trouble and never taking the blame.
Now, I was no longer going to be a follower. I set out to become my own person and others were to follow me. Earl, Arty and me were a force to be reckoned with, shortly we added Justin Hamlin to the mix. There were now four of us along with my cousin Ernest Redmon. We all were skateboarders and bmxers during that summer heading into the ninth grade. I was now going to Apopka Junior High School. I lost another uncles, Ernest's dad. he was an alcoholic. It was like when my parents divorced so did all my families too. It was so very strange. All the chaos and fun we had, nothing ever stopped Earl's friendship with me. We all moved from junior high together into Apopka High School.
I met my second love during junior high, Regina Johnson. She was dark skinned, curly hair and very pretty. I met her through a friend. We failed as a couple, several times. We were perfect on paper and that was about extent of it. I then fell for Angie Rutherford but I failed that one, Regina and her became best friends and I was out. While in school, I fell for another girl, Carol Roberts, she was different but we clicked but she cheated on me and then I stayed single.
My father got a new dog, a Rottweiler named Manic. This was my baby, she was house trained and very lovable. We had her for a number of years until my father gave her away. I was crushed. He gave her to some people down the street, she would get out and come visit me. I missed her.
I was visiting my mother now on every other weekend. She now had her own place now in Winter Park. I was now seeking my first job. Ernest was making me look bad, he worked at the Village Inn then went to Townsend's Plantation, I followed him there. I was dishwasher with him, I hated it! I got my first car around this time, a 1968 Chevrolet Camero. He was a rust bucket and was all engine. I was still into trouble and now partying. I did not graduated with the class of 1990 because I was short credits. I had to attended another year of school. I lost my job as a dishwasher, moved on to Shuler Packing Company and then to Rutherford Equipment as a warehouseman.
I did not attended summer school that year, instead I went to multiple partys all summer long, saying good bye to all my friends. This was the last time, I would ever see a lot of these people. That summer was a really good summer, I was single and dated many girls that summer.
I worked at Rutherford through my second attempt at the tweleth grade. I felt like a legend this year, because I was atteneding another year of school. Nothing to be happy about but I rolled with it. I only went to school a half day, a work program allowed me to go to work. I graduated that year, it was 1991, I did not do the whole graduation thing this time around. This was not my class, I bought all the stuff to graduate in 1990, even my class ring and annoucements read 1990. I had to take this other year of school due to the lack of knowledge from my school conselor, she did not add up my credits right until the last few weeks of my graduating year. What a let down, all my classmates were doing all the end of the year stuff while I stayed depressed. I sat in the principles office and accepted my diploma. The principle was not happy about this and neither was I, it was the schools fault for not adding my credits up correctly. But it was done and this is just a brief history of my life from the beginning.
