Ken tried to reassure me that I wasn't a total retard, but at the time I felt stigmatized by having attended a trade school, and only later realized their value to many students.

I needed to find a job but had some real obstacles to overcome. Writing anything for me was a truly painful exercise, and the frustration was debilitating!

Bookstore owners made me feel really nervous because they appeared to be well-read, and I was obviously not - but wanted to be.

Queen St. West had a lot of bookstores back in the day, and I desperately wanted to educate myself - but where to start? It was a bit overwhelming, to say the least. 

I was devastated that I didn't get into OCA, but reapplied the following year and got advanced standing into second year. Still feeling a bit insecure in my new surroundings, I did find myself getting interested in subjects I knew nothing about.

Ken started to get cocky when he realized I liked him! I wasn't paying so much attention to him at that point but more to the highway - I was terrified, but didn't let on. After that, we were a couple, and moved to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art.

My accomplices promptly left the room so we could be alone. Ken was a bit awkward because he was so nervous, but I was head over heals for him and I took the plunge - which was totally out of character for me...

Then I started to doubt his interest in me, to the point where I just gave up trying. The night wore on, and finally, near the end of the party - he showed up!!

Ken was oblivious to the plot, everyone else was an accomplice! It wasn't until we were on our way to the party that he thought, hmmm... maybe? He was trying to impress me but I didn't need to be... I had gotten to know him for the past six months as friend - now it was different...

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Friends plotted to get me and Ken together. I'd never met a comic-book artist but I found myself getting interested in him and I became a little bolder. His first professional work had just been published in ORB magazine and he was proud of it - secretly, so was I!

As the months went by I started feeling comfortable with my new friends at college. Ken was also a friend up until that point, and the dreams started to get better.

This nightmare was real - my previous boyfriend went crazy one night. He thought I was going out with someone else, it was dark and he thought my friend's mom was a guy!! They were just giving me a lift home. At that point I knew I had to get out of Dodge.

This was a very difficult transition for me, the feeling of not belonging in my old world and adjusting to a new, unknown one.

I knew this was a dead end relationship, my ground was changing, his was not. He was a nice enough guy, and my Mom liked him, considering my previous boyfriend was such a disaster...  

My high school sweetheart felt a bit threatened by my new college friends. He didn't fit in, nor did he want to.

On the first day of Art College I was a bit nervous about fitting in. Ken was the first person I met and I couldn't help notice his unnaturally straight teeth, he noticed my... well - you get the picture!

We were given a "grade 12 equivalent" diploma that was recognized at colleges but not universities. So when I graduated, I could flip a good burger but couldn't write a good sentence! Fortunately I was good at art, so with a scholarship I went on to Sheridan College - my ticket out of the cave...

Imagine graduating from high school without learning about Shakespeare - or having literature enter your vocabulary...  I wanted to learn what my sister didn't seem to be interested in.

  

                                 

Growing up in a junkyard, nothing was brand new, even our black and white TV didn't work half the time. I had to amuse myself in other ways by drawing ugly pictures influenced by Basil Wolverton. Because my older sister went to a "normal school" I was always curious about her books.

Getting tarted up and drunk at high school dances was a rite of passage... We were the last generation to use garter belts. Pantyhose was soon to become the norm but by then we switched to wearing bell bottoms - good thing!

At vocational high school, we were expected to get a job, not a career. We smoked a lot while we did our time.

It seemed that TV was more important than education.

My first kiss from my high school sweetheart was during a commercial... how romantic!

The 70's was a time that TV invaded everyones home - it was like the movie The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!!!