Final Week 6- Post 1

pg. 255-303

In the beginning of these section, Dave is still with the Turnboughs, his foster home family. Knowing that it is not a permanent home, he is not sure when Gordon Hutchenson, his probation officer, is going to come to the house and move him to another. It starts becoming weeks so Mrs. Turnbough decides to enroll Dave to his old school, Parkside Junior High. He is happy that he is going back because he gets to see his old teachers. Everyday after school he is nervous to go back "home" because he is unsure if Gordon will be waiting to pick him up. Even though Dave is still sleeping on the couch and living out of a grocery bag, he still loves living with the Turnboughs and is starting to become real close with Mr. and Mrs. One say Mrs. Turnbough tells Dave he has to start seeing a psychiatrist to help him with the previous problems in his life. He is very nervous when he goes because of how he old psychiatrist treated him. He gets to his meeting and meets the psychiatrist, Harold. Way different from Dave's old one, Harold is extremely nice and they are able to talk about all sorts of things. As days and weeks go by, Dave, who is now 15 years old and Mrs. Turnbough start spending a lot of time together, including going to a movie every Saturday afternoon. He also begins to have more responsibility and decides to get a job. He gets a job at a watch repair shop 20 hours a week and starts wanting to work whenever he has time. July 1976 was a time that turned Dave's feelings about the house in a different direction- two new foster boys came to live in the house. He didn't like having to other boys living there because the attention he once got from his "parents" starting getting smaller and his hard earned money started getting stolen from him. Dave had enough with these two boys and decided he had to leave. He did not want to do what he was doing but he did it anyways out of anger. From there, he was put into juvenile hall for a few weeks until moved to live with the Walsh's and their three kids. He really liked this family also and they were very nice to him and gave him all the freedom he wanted. Then one day the family decided to move and Dave went with them. Moving to the neighborhood of Duinsmoore made Dave happy and he though it was the "picture perfect" neighborhood. While living there, he met two new boys, Paul and Dave, which soon became his new best friends. They did everything together and had so much fun. Although Dave was having so much fun in this new home, he could not live how he was living:without a job, so he called his probation officer to come get him. Luckily, the Turnboughs let him come back and live with them.
Dave decided that he had to be working as much as he could to make enough money for when he was 18 and had to live on his own so he got a 48 hours a week job. Although this job was good for Dave he starting falling behind in school and had to drop out. Every once in a while Dave would still be thinking of his dad. Not knowing where he was or what he was doing, he called the fire station where his dad had been working. Never being able to get a hold of his dad, Dave decided to go to San Francisco himself to see him at the fire station. When he got there, he learned his father and retired from the station and now had a big drinking problem. Dave decided to Go to the nearest bar to see if his dad was there- he was. They walked for a while and didn't talk much. After a couple minutes of talking and before Dave had to go back to the Turnboughs, his dad said, "Do what you have to do. Don't end up like me." This gave Dave the feeling of making his life good and in 1978 he got a job selling cars and was one of the top 5 salesman. Soon enough Dave turned 18 years old and it was time for him to leave the foster home. He was very sad but knew that life would be okay. Going on his first airplane trip, Dave left and moved to California. He was scared to be on his own, but could not wait for what was ahead.