AN EXEMPLARY LIFE

My birth certificate reads "Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital-Indianapolis, Indiana, Date of Birth- September 14, 1950, Name- William Barker". My mother would later tell me that it was during a raging thunderstorm that I was born at 11:55 pm on that stormy Saturday evening. What a way to start the weekend! Maybe it was a harbinger of things to come.

The first thing that I remember was waking up in a room with bars around me and unidentifiable objects circling over my head. I would later learn that my prison was a baby's bed with a mobile above it comprised of a model plane, a clown's face, and a rapidly moving pinwheel. What a difference from being warm and comfortable inside the security of my mother's womb. I could not resist the urge to stare at the hypnotic images until I fell asleep which was their purpose in the first place.

The days and weeks passed without serious incident. It was an endless cycle of lying in the prison, being fed, and having my diaper changed by a person that I instinctively knew was responsible for my welfare. In addition, there was another creature roaming the area and poking it's shiny nose through the bars of my cell. It did not resemble my caretaker as it was covered with hair. Very confusing at first, but I learned to tolerate the family dog, Sparky. There appeared to be no other life forms in the vicinity that were my size. However, there was another being that was quite friendly and cozy with my caretaker who would periodically look at me with a proud and content smile. There you have my parents, Tom and Anne Barker. I was their first and only child.

As the weeks, months, and years rolled on, I found myself growing up on a small dairy farm in rural Indiana. We had plenty of milk from the cows and fresh vegetables were supplied from the three acre garden alongside of the farmhouse. The downside was that there were no other children in the area for me to play with. I noticed myself developing a great imagination to compensate for the lack of social interaction. Sometimes I had to resort to the company of imaginary friends. However, Sparky was always there to fill in the void. He was my one loyal companion. We would run through the fields from morning until night chasing after rabbits but never catching a single one. However, little did I know that my life was about to be drastically transformed.

I was not aware of it at the time, but my father and mother had decided to sell the farm and move to the outskirts of Chicago. There they would use the proceeds of the sale to buy a small bakery at a distressed price that they found out about from my uncle Fred. My mother was an excellent baker and had often sold sold pies and cakes to the locals that had been crafted in her spare time. The merchandise received rave reviews and supplemented the family income. My father could fix anything and had the gift of gab that should serve him well with the store's clientele. Both parents had the entrepreneur spirit and were not afraid of hard work. They were certain that the change in lifestyle would provide a better future for all of us as farming is not the path to riches.

As luck would have it, the sale of the farm and subsequent purchase of the bakery were completed at breakneck speed. There also was plenty of money left over to pay for the move to the city and to cover any business contingencies. We soon found ourselves living in a cozy apartment right above the bakery. However, there were no more wide open spaces to enjoy, only city streets. Sparky did not appreciate a leash. To complicate matters, my first year of school was rapidly approaching.

The days were getting shorter and fall was in the air. Soon kindergarten arrived and I was bursting with anticipation. Young Billy Barker would finally have some human playmates! After my mother took me to the front door of this giant brick building that was just around the corner, she walked me inside to meet my teacher. Miss Wagner was a massive woman who looked like she could calm a riot all by herself. But appearances can be deceiving as she had the disposition of an angel and did her best to make me feel at home. The classroom was full of kids of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I could not contain my enthusiasm as I quickly tried to make friends with anyone who talked to me. It only took a few weeks for me to get the reputation of the class social director and dispute solver much to the amazement of Miss Wagner. I was a natural politician.

As the years passed, I excelled in both athletics and academics and was admired by my peers and teachers alike. I had grown to be 6 feet, 5 inches tall and was a fixture on the honor roll and class president during my junior and senior years in high school. My parents were encouraging me to become a doctor or a lawyer. By the way, the bakery had been doing extremely well under my parents' ownership and they had the resources to pay for a college education for me. However, my mind was looking in another direction that would radically change my life.