BORN TO WIN, RAISED TO LOSE, by Marvin Barrage

Page # 7
the streets was in me and I didn’t even know why I like being in the streets so bad,so when I got to Milwaukee the only thing that changed was I wasn’t getting no beatings,we lived right on the main street 15th and CENTER and you no I can’t remember going to no school and this was 1980.I was I think 14 teen,my brother Ronnie got out the group home and he he was sneaky as hell,before I knew it I was into everything,breaking into houses,stealing cars,I could be walking up the streets and I see Ronnie going in a house,that’s how I always got into trouble, I should of kept going wherever I was going,but I always wanted to be apart of the wrong thing,we would go to the laundry-mate with moms and while she was doing the clothes we would be looking for something to get into,she tryed to watch us but she couldn’t do both,it was this one time we went with her and she made us sit inside but that didn’t last line because this woman left her purse on the counter when nobody was looking we went in the purse and got the money and her car keys and at the right time we went outside and found her car,I was driving and we made up our mind going down the streets we was going back to Cleveland, we filled the tank up and we was out,I knew the way because when I came to Milwaukee by bus I watched the signs I think it was I95 I rode it all the way,about 12 am we stop at none of them rest stops don’t remember what we did,,but I was tired but I kept driving, Ronnie was sleep and every time I opened the window it made me shake,I know around 1am or something I fell asleep behind the wheel that’s all I remember until 7:30am I woke up and the car was still going straight and on my right side was a semi truck and a lady was driving and she was looking down into the car so we started waving at her not knowing she called the police, and they pulled us over because someone said the car was waiving back and forth,he asked for license I told him I didn’t have none but I said I got my moms and I gave him the license of a white lady he said this you mother’s we said yeh we was adopted, he ran a check or whatever he do then put us in the car,I know we had made it to somewhere in Ohio we didn’t no where we was but they put us in these rooms and every time the door opened up you had to stand in the corner, we stayed the night there and the next morning take took us to downtown Cleveland and dropped us off,we had no money so we had to walk wherever we was going,I really don’t remember where we stayed,but I do remember we stayed area days with this lady named M’s Gladys, she was my moms friend she was alright but at the time we was wild so when she left us there by ourselves we search the whole house and found all kinds of money,we hide it outside and had plans on leaving the next day,so when M’s Gladys came home she told us about some lady that work at greyhound bus station said she will give us tickets back to Milwaukee, the next day we woke up ate and told her we was going outside,we got the money we hide and took off,Ronnie went his way and I went mine,I went over to my friends house in East Cleveland, Eric and Ivan when I use to run away I would go to their house,I was out that night looking for my best friend Tiger,I found him somewhere down on Euclid we kicked it around got high man the weed back then was good a 1 while we was sitting around in the house his cousin came over her name is lil’Wand and we been liking each other for along time,let me tell you a story, I was high as hell one day and me and tiger was over lil’Wand house,she got a sister named pussycat, pussycat and her mom got into a play argument and her mom made like she stabbed pussycat,they scared the shit out of me,so the night I was getting ready to leave me and lil’Wand had sex for the first time,yes she was my first,she gave me her necklace which was a Playboy bunny gold,I kept that thing somehow till 1990 when I came back too Cleveland looking for her and tiger,anyway I lost it and I can’t even began to tell you how that made me feel,anyway I got to the greyhound the next morning and went back to Milwaukee….

Marvin Barrage
DOC #256209