My parents moved in with my father's parents just before my
birth. In the first year of their marriage (including my premature
birth and lengthy confinement in an incubator), during which both
of them worked, they racked up an enormous amount of medical debt.
Since my mother continued to work as a bank teller (and later
bookkeeper) and my father as a factory worker, my grandmother
was my primary caretaker. When I was three, my parents bought
their first house, "out in the sticks"
as everyone said then. I continued spending most of my
time at my grandparents' house (barring time spent in
school) until my parents moved from the country into town
the summer before I entered the third grade.
[picnic photo. Caption: "My brother & me in the back yard of the newly purchased house.]