Karen D Winkler

Okay- in all fairness, I guess I've got to disclose a little about myself.

I was born in the Vietnam Era on April 22nd(that gives you close enough to my real age!) . Dad always reminded me I was born after taxes and that's why I didn't have lavish birthday parties. I was the last of eight kids, though, so I really don't know how any of us would have had lavish birthday parites. Technically speaking I have three brothers, and from my mother's previous marriage, three half-sisters, and one half-brother. I was used to having a lot of traffic in the house, I was used to a lot of different music styles playing at different parts of the house, I was used to having someone around to talk to or just to know they were there...

When I was born, before I was all the way out I started howling. It may not always be concise, but I haven't stopped voicing my opinion yet.

When I was a toddler and I found myself a bit bored with my surroundings, I thought nothing of walking off and travelling for blocks to look for children or animals to play with. This was still a time when you 'could'. I'd carefully note my surroundings for the return trip home, but I was often picked up by siblings or their friends, and even a couple times by the police.

I went to a few different schools all in the same town. Teachers always seemed to put me at the back of the class because of that old alphabetical system. I lagged a bit in some of the academics until it was discovered I couldn't see and got glasses. It was astounding how the world looked all of a sudden when I walked out of the shop with my first pair. There were leaves on the trees and I could see the rocks in the concrete... I guess life is kinda like that sometimes, we just get used to the way we see it even though we know there are more details.

Associated names: Karen Winkler, Karen Sherwood (college years), and Karen Fragassi.