Aloha… My name is John Hackleman, and his is my story. I was born in New York City, raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and now live in Arroyo Grande, California.
My story begins on November 21, 1959, born to James and Nancy Hackleman. He was a newspaper writer and she was a housewife.I spent my early years in NY, but moved to Honolulu in 1966, so I consider Honolulu my hometown. I have vague memories of New York, such as the local drugstore, a park with a big rock that my dad would take me to play. I remember being happy as a child, and I have peaceful and loving recollections of my early years in New York. I think my life would have been “night and day” different if my father never got that job in Hawaii, and moved us all there.
I often look back (never with anger or blame) and think of the things that shaped me into the man I eventually became, but there are so my factors, it’s all just a guess anyway, but I do think about it often.I have nothing but love for my parents, and I felt love from them and I always felt safe when I was home, stressed but safe. What I meant by that is I felt nothing but love and affection from my parents, but I always felt stressed because I knew there was violence waiting “out there”. I know that the fear and the imagination is always worse than the reality, the reality was pretty rough as well.I was to blame for a light of my life’s “roughness“. I could’ve easily chosen to not try to be “the tough guy“, but for some reason I couldn’t avert my gaze, give in, or let anyone take my lunch money. I chose to hang around with the rough group of people. I chose to fight even though I didn’t always have to and my choices definitely helped shape me into the man I became, the good and the bad parts of me. I have no one to blame but a lot of people to thank.
My life was full of great times, happy times, fun times, hard times, dark times, nice times, mean times… a lot of “times”. Thanks for coming along and being a part of my “therapy”. Writing about my life.
