I was born on January 28th 1980 (Christopher Lee Roberts). Born in the little town of Clarksville TN. That's where the story of Puttyman starts. I've lived a full and complicated life. I was born to no brothers or sisters (that I knew of at the time) which made me start off as a loner. But this loner found friends. My early years are a little blurry, the only thing I seem to remember is He-Man? Yeah, that was my first venture into action figures (back then they where called "Toys"). With this in my life I soon would figure out that toys.......errr "Action Figures" would be a big thing in my life. What I mean is I love "Action Figures"! But I'll get into that later.
So, it's the 1980s and I'm enjoying the cartoons of my childhood generation. He-Man, Tranformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, Fat Albert, Smurfs and Snorkels just to name a few. We have me, my mother (Laura Thomen) and my father (James Thomen). At the time we where living in Cedar Lake, IN. Now as a young kid my mom and dad loved the son they had. My father was bringing me into the world of "Hunting" and had high hopes of me becoming a hunting fan. So with me at a young age you can imagine me dressed in camo going hunting with my dad and our dog Lucky. Now my dad had a brother, my uncle, Tom. He also went hunting with my dad and loved picking on me. But my uncle Tom never new that his teasing would eventually encourage my favorite past time of all time.
Now one day my father took me hunting and he sighted a rabbit. Once he got his sight on the rabbit, he killed it and had Lucky retrieve it. When Lucky came back my father grabbed the rabbit and forced me to hold it by the ears. I refused and started to cry. You have to understand, at home I had a pet rabbit (name unremembered) and to see a bunny dead upset me. So I was forced to hold this rabbit by the ears the entire time. This broke me of the hunting tradition. Now as I said before, my uncle Tom used to tease in alot of different ways. My dad used to own an Atari 2600 and I loved it. Frogger was my favorite game. At the time my uncle Tom was a teenager and living with my grandma in Crown Pointe, IN. We would take trips to visit grandma and I would encounter Tom.
1989: I took a trip to my grandmas house and in the living room my uncle was playing a weird game. The controller was flat and a little man on the screen would jump around and break blocks. This was my first look at the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now remember how Tom would tease me. He used the system to tease me. Wouldn't let me play it or tease me about how cool it is. But grandma to the rescue, she forced him to let me play. With the Nintendo controller in hand, I felt how great this system was. When christmas came along I was excitied to recieve my first Nintendo. This continued for years to come. Tom would get a Genesis first and tease me so I had to have one and I got a new system every Christmas. This brought on my video game addiction.
My family was constructed of my Mom, Dad, Grandma (Shirley Thomen), Grandpa Dirtball [ I called him Dirtball and I was his little dirtball. I got the nickname from playing in the dirt and mud alot], Uncle Tom, Aunt Chris and Aunt Laurie. This was my family on my dad's side. I'll get into my mom's side of the family later. But the reason I bring up this family is because I loved this family. It's the type of family you dream of. Big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, Christmas Eve present opening. It was constructed like this: On Halloween I would go trick or treating around her neighborhood because it was safe. Then came Thanksgiving where we would meet up at Grandma's house for dinner. Then Christmas Eve we would go to my Aunt Chris' house to open gifts from the whole family. We would trade off gifts between all of us. Then Christmas morning would be gifts at our home. Then Christmas evening would be Christmas dinner at grandmas. Me and my cousins would get togethor and play with our toys togethor. I loved this tradition. Another person I have to bring up is my great uncle Clarince. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have had a great christmas. He would give my mom and dad $200 dollars for Christmas. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't of had the big Christmas' I had. I miss all my relatives on my dad's side.
Now you might be asking "What happened? Why aren't they still in your life?" You have to understand that I found out later in life that my dad was not my dad. I called him dad but he was not my real dad. Heck, he never even adopted me, just dad by marriage to my mom. My real dad is Jack Willis and I have never met him. But Jim was my dad at this time. Now my dad (Jim) was the black sheep of the family. We didn't get togethor with grandma as much as the rest of the family. And behind closed doors my father was not a nice man. There was alot of times we would move away from him and live in a abused womens shelter. But he would convince us to come back and for the first week he would be the greatest dad in the world till we got comfortable. Then the nightmare would start again. My father was not nice. He would physically and verbally abuse me and my mom. I grew up a over-weight kid and he would never let me forget it. Especially when I hated hunting and became a computer nerd. He didn't want a nerd for a son. We lived with my stepdad till I was 14, occassionally moving back and forth from abused shelters. Which brings me to my moms side of the family.CHAPTER 3
Let Go of Baby Ways
Now you bring us to the trip to Clarksville TN, my birth town. With me and my mom moving away from my dangerous father toward Clarksville. WAIT! Let me bring you a subplot people. Since I was a baby, I used to carry around a blanket. This was a baby blanket that my mom couldn't get me to let go of. I used to call it my Nitey Nite Blankey and it went everywhere with me. I never grew out of it. But god has a weird way of telling me when it's time to let go of material possessions.Now let me setup the scene: Me and my mom, making our way towards Tennessee. Trunk and back seat packed up. You can see my mom doing everything should could to make my trip fun and exciting. I would occasionally take naps in the front seat while the trip was going on. But who would of "thunk" [THUNK meaning: Think past sense] what would happen next. There I lay sleeping in dreamy dream land. Time pass! I wake up to my world spinning! Then I pass out in the middle of the world spinning. I awoke again upside down not knowing what was going on. I pass out again. I awaken again to my body on dirt with people looking at me. I can smell a weird smell. It's like burnt plastic with dirty windshield. I know it's confusing. Then I hear a siren. Wait, back up what happened here? I'll explain. While I was sleeping, the car went out of control. Now understand my mom was not drinking and just two hours ago my mom stopped to get sleep. She was quite capable of driving. So here we are car out of control and the car decides to do a flip from one side of the road to the other side. The car hit the guard rail and flips onto the turnpike on the other side. The car flipped 7 times over (this is where I woke to my world spinning) and landed upside down (that's when I woke up again then passed out). We had people stopping to help us out of the car. And here I am in the dirt. All our stuff was spread out in the woods. And we're off to the hospital. Now because of this accident I found out 2 things. 1. At the time I was not wearing my seat belt. I know what you're thinking, "That's dangerous" but if I was wearing my seat belt then I wouldn't be here today. You see, I found out that if I was wearing my seat belt at the time then I would of strangled myself when the car landed upside down. Yeah, I was tossed around but with me being so small, I would've strangled myself in short time. So here comes 2. Like I said earlier god has a weird way of saying to let go of material possesions and he enforced it. When me and my mom went to the impound to get our stuff my baby blanket was gone. We even drove to where the accident was and no sign of the blanket. I had to let go of this item. But don't worry later in life I will find other possessions to cling to. I'm just lucky I lived, or was it luck or not. Was somebody watching over me? We'll find out later!
